Something I don't understand

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They say autism girls tend to be more imaginative so thus the reason why they are less diagnosed. But in the ADOS test, they give you this picture book that is wordless and they have you tell a story from it. If girls are more likely to have an imagination, why would they have trouble with this? Would they more be likely to pass this part of the test because they are imaginative so they would score below the autism threshold for imagination? Has anyone here ever scored high in the imagination part and are you female?

And if I had to tell a story from those objects, I think I would do the Sally Ann with it. Do I pass? I told a story. What if I make them beat each other up because they decided to fight? Do I also pass? What if I decided to give each object a name? Do I pass? What else can I do with them to tell a story? How about making the sponge a bed and putting another object on it? I would have to think of others I could do with these objects even though I don't normally play this way but this time I have to because they want me to tell a story with them.

You mean you invent a story where each of those objects in the book has a name? I would say sure, why shouldn't you pass?
I think that's the one greatest obstacle to being imaginative actually when you ponder a lot about if an idea you have is 'correct' or 'right'. I mean, look at whoever got the crazy idea to make a story about a talking sponge and starfish. Obviously, anything goes.

What is the purpose of the wordless picture book in the test? What exactly is it testing? If its testing your ability to read the body language of the human characters in the book then an autistic person might well do poorly at it despite having all of the imagination in the world.

If it's also testing for body language the character in the book has, then that makes sense. I have no idea what the picture book looks like and it sounds like all the ADOS tests have the same wordless book based on a couple posts I have read here. I used to read by pictures as a kid because I couldn't even read yet. But when I was three I used to just sit my dolls down in a group and I would sit in the chair and literally say "Bla bla bla, bla bla bla" and show them the pictures on the page and then turn the page and repeat the Bla bla bla again.

I don't know what you have to do to pass or fail, but remember that part of the test. The picture book had pictures of a flying turtles. I didn't get past thinking turtles can't fly and you would need to seriously mess with some physical laws to make it happen. I'm with Schlumpfikus clearly anything goes.

So I see pictures of the turtles flying so I would be saying "The Turtles are flying." I know they can't fly in real life and it would be impossible which is why we call it make believe. Like how starfish don't talk and neither do sponges but they do on Spongebob and starfish don't live like humans do and neither do squids and squirrels don't live on the bottom of the sea. But yet I am sure there are autistic people out there that write Spongebob fanfiction. We even had a member here whose special interest was Spongebob. I wonder if they pass if they do a Spongebob Fanfiction. I wonder how they would do on the ADOS test for the imagination part if they were able to do a Spongebob Fanfiction.

I guess that's where the spectrum bit comes in, there are a number of autistic traits and the picture book tests for one or some of them. We all have some but not necessarily all of the traits? I work with traumatised children and have gained a reputation for developing innovative and imaginative treatment programs, that's easy for me. Make up a story do imaginative play or use my imagination that way, it like watching a train wreck. Then again I love art and using different shapes and colours to create landscapes and environments. How can you do one and not the other?

I suspect I'm not helping just sharing my own confusion.

But do you know if you passed that part of the test on the ADOS test or did you still score in the autism range?

I have always had an imagination but creativity has always been my struggles. That was my roadblock in school when our teachers would make us be creative. I struggled in Writer's Workshop but yet when I was seven, we were handed the booklets with wordless pictures and we had to tell a story for each one. I found it easy. It was pictures of the same leprechaun and we had to make up our own story about him. the first one was him walking on the sidewalk and I was writing how he was walking and he thought is was Saturday when it was Wednesday. But when I was eight, we were handed a coloring page of a grizzly bear and we had to color it and put in a background for the bear. All I drew was the water and had him standing in it while other kids were more creative than me. But yet I was able to build with train tracks and build houses with Lincoln Logs at home and play with the trains, I also had my Barbie dolls living like a family and had the kids play together and did reenactments. My play has always been concrete because it was just stuff from TV shows or how I would live. When I did dress up, I wore an old dress and just did my normal things and in school I had pretended to feed a baby doll using a doll bottle. But I used to write cat stories about my cat and I had the animals communicate with each other like humans like I had seen in Homeward Bound. So I would think I might pass the autism test for the imagination part even though there is no way I could be that creative like I have seen with art work and what people build with Legos or what they do on the Mario Maker Levels or what people do with make believe. I can copy of course. Also when I was four, I was playing in my sandbox and we had a bunch of wood blocks from the wood that was cut for our swingset and my baby sitter had used those wood blocks and made a table and chairs with them so there I was playing in the sandbox and I was pretending with those, the chairs and the table and my mom thought I made it but it was actually one of my baby sitters that did. It wouldn't have occurred to me to be that creative with those blocks but I was able to pretend they were table and chairs after they were made. I also could pretend to be a lion when I was four so that made the doctor think no autism in me but yet I have seen members here say how they would pretend to be a cat or something and wanting to be treated like they are a cat. Mmm makes me wonder if they would also make a doctor think of no autism in them because they had an imagination. So I am surprised they still have it n the ADOS test if people have realized autistic people do have an imagination so why is it still used to rule out autism?

Also at my son's appointment yesterday, it wouldn't have occurred to me to tell my son to be a statue to make him stand still because that is what a nurse did and he was good. I lack creativity as a parent so that makes it hard for me as a parent.

The grand autismo wrote this in a post in 2013 to explain what they are looking for. This would suggest that they are looking at social imagination and social communication and that it is not about our ability to imagine in the way the word would normal be used ie making up a story or imaginative play. I don't know how they scored this bit of the test but if the criteria below is correct I didn't get an NT result. Not surprising I guess.

Hope this helps, seems your/my imagination is fairly typical if not easy to understand.

Do you think it could also be down to the pressure when doing such tests? As like with exams as a kid, i would just freeze and mind go blank. When you get past a certain early age you become more self aware, and i cant speak for all but only myself, that feeling/knowing i was different from an early age and the events of past certainly made it more difficult.. I was just thinking about this myself about the book and have to admit, i think i would struggle off the bat so to speak to make something up. However when i am absorbed into doing artistic things like in photoshop i do really well, or when i was with coastguard, being able to see ahead all the possible scenarios in literally a flash of a second or two, but sit me down knowing i am being observed i think my mind would be focused on that rather than the actually task, because in essence it isnt natural but enforced... I think i have a good imagination, but the anxiety associated with having to perform without my own natural free will would cloud any imaginative thoughts i might have had.... I hope that made some sense, again brain has the answer for myself but seems to get lost in translation by the time i get to type it out! too many thoughts! lol

What did you mean in that sentence? That my imagination is typical for an aspie or for a non aspie? And when you wrote "my" too, were you also talking about yourself?

I meant they I think you, me and properly most aspies have imaginations that are similar to anyone else. Evidence may even suggest that aspies may be on the whole more imaginative?

My apologies if I caused offence that was not my intent I was trying to make a positive and inclusive statement. Lots of what I think regularly does not come across the way I meant it or with the intent. If this is the case sorry.

I just noticed this response. My mother often tells me to be creative when I read to my kids. She will tell me to make something up with pictures and I struggle with this. I can just point to what I see in it or what they are doing but it's hard to make a story out of it. But when I read the book Carl (about a baby and the dog), I can talk about what goes on in the picture like "They're going down the stairs together" then the next page they are walking and I say "They are walking and going somewhere" Then on the next page they are in a store or something and I say 'They had stopped at a store and look at what is in the store" and I point to the stuff. That book is wordless. But I can remember my own special ed teacher reading these Carl book series to us and she did a far better job so I try to do what she did when I was a kid. But my mom is pretty creative when she reads to my kids and goes by pictures than text and she does better than me and it seems to come natural to her.

I do wonder if they would count anxiety towards the test or if they would just mark it as anxiety and it wouldn't count as for towards autism if you failed that part of the test because of the anxiety? One of my therapists I used to see told me that you can get a false positive on the test.

No you didn't offend me, I was trying to understand what you wrote there because often I have a hard time understanding what is being said. "Typical" mostly means ordinary but sometimes when we are talking about disorders, the meaning of the word typical changes and it could mean typical as in for typical for autistics so it gets confusing because of context.

Having completed my assessment they gave me a diagnosis and suggested that I seek help for social anxiety, I don't know how they separate out mental illness form autism but much of the six months worth of appointments prior to the actual assessment seemed to be geared at eliminating any mental health issues as the cause of my difficulties.

I think for me the "to many thoughts" is important. I don't feel like my brain ever really stops, there is a lot whirling around up there (not always anything useful, it can spend a lot of time going through names that begin with B). I find it difficult to communicate everything I'm thinking, I have learnt that lots of talking is not always appreciated. Trying to condense my thoughts is something I find very anxiety provoking. Not knowing if I'm understood, if I've made sense or if the person is even interested. In then often get so overwhelmed that talking or saying anything becomes to difficult.