Question for the Aspies - Imagination vs. Reality
When my son was first diagnosed with PDD-NOS/possible AS at age 2.5, he really did not seem to have any imaginary play. But then I began to see glimpses of it, he would pretend he was driving to the store to get things, or pretending to talk on a cellphone, etc.... Now that he is 5, some of his imaginary play does seem to border on fantasy. At first I was like "Great, he DOES have imaginary play!" Like for instance he will say that he drives a purple VW Bug. Then he will tell me that my car IS a purple VW Bug, and he will tell me to say that it IS a purple VW bug. I go along with it for the most part, but sometimes I do worry that I am not helping him to distinguish between reality and fantasy. My son loves to draw, and he will spend hours drawing things and talking about all kinds of scenarios that are going on. I worry that I let him do it too much, but it just seems to help him regulate himself, so I let him do it.
My son does not really play with toys at all, he just seems to have everything going on in his head, and drawing it seems to be his way of playing.
My husband does have an uncle that was diagnosed as schizophrenic and he used to have all kinds of delusions. Sometimes I worry that my son could develop schizophrenia, but I just try to push that aside.........
As for what the OP said, I was like that. Then I kept the fantasies but learned to hide them. That's how I got to be a writer.
Thanks very much for the input - we did try Tae Kwan Do, which he was very interested in (and for which we had high hopes) for those reasons - and he got frustrated with it and refused to continue - and by refused I mean sat on the bench by himself for an hour for an entire session. I think in large part his frustration was due to the fact that it didn't make him into the superhero he imagines himself to be.
