Mimicing car sounds/imaginative play.

[Tylers-mum]

This morning as we were waiting in the waiting room of the hospital, my son approached another young lad (he knows him from the OT sessions they share with 2 other kids) who was playing with a car. T picked up a car and started making engine noises 'Brrmmmm' as he wheeled the car along, then he said he was a fire engine and did the siren noises.

 

I sat there in confusion and am still that way now. I thought HFA kids (or any ASD child) didn't initiate imaginative play or mimic car sounds???

I know he is HFA b/c he has all the other traits but him doing this has really knocked me for six.

 

Can anyone explain this to me please?? Is this normal??

 

Just wanted to add, it didn't develop from there, just did the noises but no scearios that I could see anyway but then we were all called in for the OT session then.

Edited January 18, 2006 by Tylers-mum

[lainey]

This morning as we were waiting in the waiting room of the hospital, my son approached another young lad (he knows him from the OT sessions they share with 2 other kids) who was playing with a car. T picked up a car and started making engine noises 'Brrmmmm' as he wheeled the car along, then he said he was a fire engine and did the siren noises.

 

I sat there in confusion and am still that way now. I thought HFA kids (or any ASD child) didn't initiate imaginative play or mimic car sounds???

I know he is HFA b/c he has all the other traits but him doing this has really knocked me for six.

 

Can anyone explain this to me please?? Is this normal??

 

Just wanted to add, it didn't develop from there, just did the noises but no scearios that I could see anyway but then we were all called in for the OT session then.

[smiley]

TY,

 

My son will do this - and does 'appear' to have good imaginative play. Then it becomes obvious that he's acting out something he's seen or something he's read - if i, or another child, were to try to join in or take over his play - he wouldn't have a clue and become very upset. ASD children arn't great at imaginitive play - but they are great mimics!!

[lainey]

hi tylermum my little boy who;s 6 has always had imagintive play and he has asd that has always confused me because they say that;s 1 of the signs of autism

[Jill]

First of all, I think sometimes that they CAN have imaginative play & still be autistic.

 

However, sometimes I think it's because they are copying something they have seen or been shown, rather than being imaginative. The Boy will now "brum" a car along the floor, but this is because he has been shown to do that as part of his sessions in special nursery. He also "walks" figure toys e.g. little soldiers etc., along the floor, but again only because he is copying what he has seen other children doing.

 

BUT, he also recently squashed the front of a big box down (that one of his Christmas toys came in) and slid down it saying "weeeeee" - something that he only normally does on a slide. He also hid inside the box, playing with toys and used it to hide in and jump out at me and daddy shouting "boo". He also lined his toys up in there & babbled to them & then put the coat of one of his toys on whenever he took it out of the box (as if he was pretending that the box was their house & they needed a coat on to come out of the house).

 

I think all of that's fairly imaginative.

 

Personally, I do think that they maybe have less imagination than other children, or display it in different ways than other children & also have problems with empathy. But, that's different to saying that all ASD kids have no imagination or no empathy.

 

That's my two penneth anyway!

 

Jill (by no means an expert, just a mum)

Edited January 18, 2006 by Jill

[Tylers-mum]

Thanks all.

 

Jill, T 'definately' has issues with empathy, emotions, eye contact etc etc, basically all the traits of ASD. He has issues with socialising appropriately, is very imature for his age and does lack imagination when initating play at school (they told me). Just seeing him doing this today through me for six but reading the replies here has cleared that up i guess.

 

Thanks again.

[Jill]

Don't lose hope tho T's mum, I was trying to say (but not very well cos I do waffle) that it might have been imaginative play. Who's to say really?

 

They're all just so different - I guess that's why some "professionals" have such difficulty in dx.

 

The Boy has great eye contact.

He returns a smile if you smile at him.

He is upset if he sees my cross face (he recognises it before I say anything)

He loves cuddles

 

If you saw him in a restaurant & smiled at him, he'd look you in the eye and smile back!

 

But, he is 4 and still not talking & still in nappies & has his little rituals & understands very little of what is said to him.

 

Confusing sometimes isn't it?

[Tylers-mum]

Confusing sometimes isn't it?

Yep, definately agree with you on that one! LOL

 

T smiles at you but doesn't recognise when I am angry or sad. He recognises the smile but can get that confused with laughing in some situations. He is very literal thinking and loves hugs.

 

Someone said when I first joined this board that all ASD kids are different in the traits they have, me being not so knowledgable in those days thought 'no way!' LOL. Hmm, since being here, I have learnt that that is soooo the case! Every ASD child/adult 'IS' different. Guess that's why it's confusing! LOL

[Jill]

Someone said when I first joined this board that all ASD kids are different in the traits they have, me being not so knowledgable in those days thought 'no way!' LOL. Hmm, since being here, I have learnt that that is soooo the case! Every ASD child/adult 'IS' different. Guess that's why it's confusing! LOL

 

 

And vive le difference too! Wouldn't the world be boring if we were all the same?

 

Now if I could just get all those other pesky NT people to accept all differences my life would be complete

[Tylers-mum]

[Suze]

my son regularly runs around pretending to be a tractor making tractor noises, changes sound when he changes gear and beeps when in reverse .................he also uses imaginative play in a replay scenario.He is dx ASD.

[Kerre]

When I was small I'd used to always play being little creatures that I'd draw myself, with my brothers. Now I have the computer, so I don't need imagination any more. The end.

[ceecee]

I had an imagiary friend when i was a child.i also engaged in imaginary play in a normal manner.Where i fall down is the ability to imagine what others might be feeling.

 

I am an adult with suspected a.s.

 

Some people with a.s. can and do engage in imaginative play.

 

hope this helps.

[mum22boys]

This imaginative play thing is so confusing.

 

I think it is probably wrong to think that kids with AS have no imagination or imaginative play skills but more to the point to what extent do they have them. I watch M. He pushes a car and would make a siren noise if it is a police car etc. He used to pretend he was a lawn mower whilst he had an obsession with them. Today he told me he played dragons in the playground, turned out it was a game of chase and he was leaving clues for the others, footprints so they could find him. i thought that was good imagination until i remembered last week at school they had a visit from a policeman who told them all about clues, footprints was one of them. He was just replaying the event over.

 

I also have a two year old who is developing imaginative play. He pushes a train on the track and makes all the right noises. he does the same with toy figures, pretends they are walking along. He makes pretend cups of tea and food. He is more advanced than M who is six this year. I also recently visited a friend who has a 3 year old. he was holding two toy figures pretending they were talking to each other, M has never done this.

 

I have realised now that M has a very limited imagination but he does have some even if he is years behind. It is just made so confusing on the criteria for ASD that it makes you question what imagination is.

 

mum22boys

[melly]

Hi

 

My little 'un also confuses the 'powers that be', he was seen pretending to drink from a cup with a tea set, but had learnt that from his big sister. He does have some great hide and seek type games, only on the hundredth time of doing them you can start to see that they may be repetitive!

 

But sometimes, I do see things that make me think there is a spark of imagination, even if it is very delayed.

 

He too, has great eye contact at times (which always leaves people with limited knowledge of ASD thinking he is either very high functioning or I am making the whole thing up!!!).

 

But hey, its nice to be a bit different!

[mossgrove]

This seems to be one of themain misconceptions about Autistic children. Many so-called professionals (especially teachers) have offered the opinion that a child 'cannot be autistic' because there is evidence of imaginative play.

 

Some Autistic children do have little or no imagination, but the rest do have imagination, it just works in a different way to other children.

 

For example J will re-enact scened from his favourite TV programs, video games etc. and will engage in what is genuinely 'pretend play' with his toy soldiers, cars or whatever.

 

When you look closer there are differences. Perhaps the main one is that he can create his own imaginary world to play in, but he has much more difficulty in entering another childs imaginary world, so he has a need to dominate/dictate the imaginative play when other children are involved, and th imaginative play is more ficussed around re-enacting something than creative imagination.

 

So I would say, yes Autistic children DO have imagination, but it is different.

 

Simon

[Jill]

When you look closer there are differences. Perhaps the main one is that he can create his own imaginary world to play in, but he has much more difficulty in entering another childs imaginary world, so he has a need to dominate/dictate the imaginative play when other children are involved, and th imaginative play is more ficussed around re-enacting something than creative imagination.

 

So I would say, yes Autistic children DO have imagination, but it is different.

 

Simon

 

Simon, you have said so eloquently exactly the thing I was trying to waffle out. Thankyou

[loulou]

Hi,

 

I totally agree with Simon. Kai does have imaginative play, but it is asually copied from something he has seen. He is very rigid with his play too, therefore no-one could join in or try to change the "story" he is acting out. His teacher says what wondeful sories he makes up, but when i see them, they are just a modified version of something we have done or something he's seen.

 

Loulou x

[LizK]

I agree with Simon too. A friend helps run a social skills group for teens with AS and he finds a lot of the kids have very fantastical imaginations, deeply into Star Trek and other scifi to the point they get completely and utterly (?overly)immersed in it. Until recently my four yr old has just had symbolic play so would copy things he saw others doing like making a cup of tea or feeding his doll. He's suddenly started to extend this to enacting his favourite TV programmes, currently Come Outside to the point where he gets lost in his own world and withdraws. He will pretend to be Pippin the dog at fairly inappropriate times too ! Over the last few weeks he's extended the play so the pushchair is now his plane and so on. I think the difference is that this play is still modelled on what he's seen on the TV but it's a massive jump for him . In the More Than Words book I'm reading it says that higher functioning ASD kids can have imaginative play but it is often based upon things they have copied or witnessed in real life. My son will play pretend shop but we have to do it exactly the same each time! One of the things we are trying to encourage is for him to make choices to alter his play.

 

I think imagination in ASD is different and is more linked to the lack of Theory of mind (seeing things from others point of view) so it can be quite rigid, they can often engage in their own imaginary play or on their own terms but not in someone elses

 

Lx

[ksasnic]

Nick does the re-enactment thing too - just wish the man who wouldn't dx him realize that not everyone will be compartmentalized neatly before he is able to dx them !!! still so angry with man who seemed posibly more aspie than Nick !!! wanting to work down his list and to be dx we had to have every box checked to his satisfaction !!!! regardless of anything else .... Still waiting for the 2nd opinion... will chase that up monday. I told man that Nick watches dvds endlessly over and over again then after spiderman he did his obligitary race round the house jump on the furniture and so after the 12 re-run I shoved a pair of his underpants on his head and called him bugman so he kept shouting out bugman - bugman -but this man who calls himself an expert decided that this meant Nick had imaginative play and so didn't mark this down.. he refused to see the fact that it was as you said earlier mimicking. he didn't instigate the bug- man I did !!!

 

Ho Hum- still very angry about that and there stupid dx procedures....

 

Good luck