Imaginative/pretend play?

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Were any of you ok/good at this? I never was. An action man was just an inanimate doll to me. Toy cars were just things you pushed to make them move.

I did okay in it, not great. But this was after I was 5 1/2 years of age.

Before then....I was an oblivious autistic person.

I had a vivid imagination, which is why I don't know how I got this diagnosis of ASD at such a young age. I played with toys the same as any other child. My dolls and teddies all had personalities, and I could even play with toys with other children without a problem.
I had a set of toy safari animals, but I made them socially interact and kind of live like humans, where as my brother just wanted to make them fight, which I thought was boring and uncreative.

When it came to playing with toys or imaginative play, I was no Aspie.

I think mine was normal. I ironed my clothes. I made my Barbie dolls sit down around the coffee table, I made them sit at the dining room table, I had them sit at their desk or beauty desk, I put them in their bath tub, I pushed a baby doll around in my buggy or stroller, I fed them, read to them. I also made mud cakes or used sand and small pebbles and pretended it was mix and stirred it with a shovel while playing in the sand in a bucket. I used to put our tiny pebbles from the swing set in the grass to make a creek. I was somewhat creative. My son is more creative than I was at his age and how he plays with his toys. Mine was more concrete. I showed pretend play young as age two. I just remember then all my toys were just toys and you did certain things with them and Mom taught me. I don't think I would have learned if she didn't play with me. But I don't remember using any imagination so I was just mimicking because I can remember seeing myself do things with my toys but there was no imagination behind it. Rocking a doll was just rocking a doll. When I was a little older I started to use imagination like when I would have my dolls sit at a table, I just pictured them eating or when I have them sit around a coffee table I would picture them talking like adults always do with then sit. I am sure some kids are just more imaginative than others because there were lot of things I didn't do other kids would do because I thought it was boring.

I read Temple Grandin didn't start pretend play until she was eight.

I also had no problem playing with toys such as action figures and accompanying vehicles and playsets. In that respect, I was just like any other child. I wasn't so keen on sharing them with other children though! The only time that I really did let anyone else join in with me was when I was putting together Lego kits or making up random stuff from mixed Lego tubs. I loved soft toys as well especially my Sooty the bear puppet. I took that thing with me everywhere!

Last edited by AlanMooresBeard on 15 Mar 2017, 10:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

I loved playing with dolls, so yes, I'd say I was.

I pretended pennies were football players. I was 12 then.

I also pretended I was in a coma at that time.

I had Barbie and GI Joe dolls. I used to switch their body parts around and smash them into things. Sometimes I put them in unusual positions. If you push in a barbie dolls face, it looks really creepy. One of the unusual positions I put them in was "sex" positions, I didn't even know what sex was, so I guess it was an imaginative thing.

My Barbie dolls were high school kids and my Ken dolls were their boyfriends, going to proms and competing with each other over how pretty they looked. I was only about 5 or 6, and I didn't even know any teenagers back then so I don't know how I made typical high schoolers out of my dolls.

I had a dolls house, and I played normal families with the little dolls that lived in it; a mum, a dad and 3 children, and I nicked one of my mini toy farm animals to give them a pet cat. My dad brought some little wooden shapes from his job once, and he gave them to me to put into my dolls house. I didn't know what they were meant to be, but I used my imagination and used them as furniture in the dolls house.

I had a toy cash register, and I used it to play shops. This was better to play with another child; one of us be the cashier and the other be the customer, and we took turns.

I always loved pretend play. To be 100% honest, I still play with dolls, action figures, and Lego sets, even though I'm 23. My mom says I only parallel played, however. She says I never played with other children. Actually, that was part of how my daycare suspected Autism.

I was continuing to play imaginative games well into my early teens when most other girls were getting really into boys and make-up.

At the same time most of these games were by myself, possibly involving more set up than usual (games with other people almost definitely did and were pretty much dictated by me with little actual playing- if I remember correctly). I also tended to play through the same or very similar stories though would play different stories with different toys.

I also played without toys, prentending to be various characters such as a velociraptor or 'fighter girl'- a flying, talking, magic cat (from space). Again, when other people were involved I would take charge.

I was fairly good at it...I remember making Barbie and her wee sister Skipper act out scenarios, and I constructed an entire world of invisible witches for myself - much better than the real world!

I completely lacked it. I'd line toys up in size order, later I'd group them into categories. I had no understanding of what the other toddlers were doing (they were playing) and I never could do any of that pretend families thing as a kid even when I understood they were pretending. I was a boring little s**t, lol. I'm still not imaginative.

I have a hard time with pretending, too, ever since I was a kid. I remember playing house with the kids next door to me when I was in elementary school, and it just felt awkward to me. Also, when I got much older and was seeing a therapist, he asked me to pretend that someone else was sitting in the chair in front of me. He asked me to talk to that person, calling it role play, and it was just too weird. I told the therapist that, too. I really don't like role play, but if I have to do it, all I can do is try it with the best of my ability.

totally into pretend play. War, pirates,secret agents, and all of that stuff. Playing with little "army men", or pretending being a figher yourself. Even would persuade playmates to join me in inventing imaginary countries with imaginary armed forces to wage global war. My dad acquired an actual surplus "reconaissance manual" used by servicemen in WWII to ID aircraft. Had every plane by every country in the world during WWII. I would invite playmates to pick planes from that book to stock our imaginary airforces (mix and match-like players for your fantasy football team). I myself had a taste for the wicked,and would always pick the Nazi Stuka Dive bomber for my own airforce just because it was so evil looking. Everyone loved the British Spitfire because it was so classy looking.

I pretended to be a wall, but then someone tickled me, and walls are supposed to laugh.

I have a vivid memory of lining up plastic dinosaurs when I was 3, but not doing anything imaginative with them. Then a year later, I remember using them to play an imaginative game with my friend. When I did pretend play with others, I never really contributed to the storyline, just did what I was told to do with the characters. When I was alone, I'd make up my own storyline. Interestingly, they almost always had some reason to repeatedly line up my stuffed animals or sort them into categories.

As I got older I'd do "surgery" on stuffed animals. I'd cut them up and stitch them back together. Or attempt to. There are a few headless stuffed animals in my inventory.