Autistic Kids Don't have any Imagination

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I think this comes down to a definition of imagination. I think for NT's imagination means a kid picking up a shoe and pretending it's a car. Where if an autistic kid was to play with a shoe he or she would use it in play literally as a shoe but still be able to come up with what we would consider imaginative play. I used to be able to play alone for hours as a kid with a bucket of lego. I have to admit I sometimes need to be shown the potential of a thing before I use it imaginatively. Like the 3D modelling program Blender, I need to watch some tutorials of how other people build houses for video games. But then I'm off on my own using their techniques in my own ways. Or while writing a fantasy novel over the past decade I become stuck when I no longer have maps and sketches of an area. I have to halt writing then draw out the city or countryside I'm describing in order for it to be real. So I would say my writing imagination is not vivid but my visual art imagination is, then I merely describe with writing what I've created visually.

Imagination, in my mind, is part of what makes us human - the potential to perceive possibilities not just current reality is a phenomenal talent that humans have in abundance which is why humans are so good at creating new things and ideas. And people on the spectrum seem to actually have more ability in this area than most.
It really doesn't matter whether or not that imagination is based in reality or fantasy.

The thing is, when the diagnostic criteria were first created it wasn't understood that there are multiple forms of imagination, just like there are multiple forms of intelligence, so when professionals noticed that people on the spectrum struggle to place themselves in other people's shoes (imagining what someone else is feeling or thinking) they dubbed it "lack of imagination".

If you talk to most professionals now you will find a very different response on imagination - rather than lump all imagination in together, they recognise that autistic people are one of the most creative and imaginative groups of people on the planet but that there is one area of imagination they struggle with in particular.

Omid hit on this precisely - when they talk about lack of imagination they mean social imagination.....

As a professional myself, I would never suggest that anyone I work with lacks imagination, in fact exploring imagination is one of the most fascinating things about working with autistic people because so many are fantastic at thinking outside the box and I love where their minds can take mine, but I do understand that one of the main barriers to easy social development is poor social imagination and building strategies and awareness to help with that is absolutely essential for most people on the spectrum.

It's hard to have an anxiety disorder without being able to imagine the worst.

When it comes to daydreaming and fantasizing I have a good imagination.
When it comes to playing make believe games, that I'm not so good at.
I like reading sci-fi and fantasy books. But like when I saw Ender's Game the movie, what I had pictured in my head, reading the book, was a lot lesser then what I saw in the movie version of Ender's Game.
So if I'm reading something the The Old Man And The Sea, that's easy to picture.
But if it's something with vast and complex scenery, then I can only imagine part of that.

I have train car loads of imagination. I would sell some if I could find a way to market the surplus.

But I don't have difficulty playing imaginary games with others if they are into it. So I didn't quite fit the answers given, but chose 1 by default as closest.

Autistic people can have as much or as little imagination as anyone else.

I think the key difference is spontaneous vs. directed imagination. My spontaneous imagination is basically rubbish, but my best work is definitely creative.

I could always use more imaginative powers.

I believe that all autistics are imaginative in their own way.

but some are MUCH more imaginative than others.