(So called) lack of imagination

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I've read somewhere (might even have been here, lol) that with the famous "lack of imagination" in association with Asperger's Syndrome (or autism in general) is meant not a lack of creativity whatsoever but rather a lack of the abitility to imagine the outcome of a specific situation for example, which is also the reason why routines and rituals are often so important. Is that true?

Yeah I think thats true. I have a wild imagination that never seems to be at rest. But I have trouble figuring out the outcome will be. This happens on a daily basis for me!

I’ve read that children with autism specifically lack creativity and imagination in play – the classic example used in every article (talk about lack of imagination) being that a child with autism will not see a school bus when given a box painted yellow with black stripes – they will only see a box painted yellow with black stripes. They also don’t understand how to explain imaginative play – like if they are walking around on all fours and barking, and someone asks if they are a dog, they’ll say, “no, I’m a boy”.

I certainly don’t think that that means the child can’t “pretend”. He was barking, was he not? Perhaps he just feels that pretend play is just that – pretend play – and not something that needs to be explained.

My sister and I did a lot of imaginative play together. We are very close in age, and I also suspect her of being an aspie as well. We would play with our barbies, act out our own plays, write stories, and do all sorts of creative things together. But whenever our parents, or anyone else, asked us what we were playing, or pretending to be, we always answered “nothing”. Always. I don’t think it was so much that we were embarrassed, just that we thought it was our play world and therefore no one else’s business.

Or maybe we just didn’t know how to explain all that play in just a few words – I’m an adult now and I still get flustered when people ask how my day was!

When it came to playing with other kids, I preferred to play outdoors – going sledding, riding bikes, or playing on a swing set or playground, were easy and not too difficult to screw up socially. But when it came to playing with toys, or doing other role-playing-type imaginative play, I only liked to play with my sister. The other kids always had really weird ideas. Like other girls always wanted to play “house”, or have pretend beauty pageants with their dolls. My sister and I liked pretending to be characters from TV shows, or taking our barbies and stuffed animals on some kind of adventure.

So it’s not that we were incapable of imagination and pretend play, it’s just that we preferred our own pretend play, not someone else’s. And we didn’t know how to explain our own play to NT’s.

And by the way, if someone had given me a box painted yellow with black stripes, I wouldn’t have played with it either. How can you pretend something is a motor vehicle when it doesn’t even have the most important component – wheels???

I can't say I'm aspie yet but I have a lot of similar symptoms.

When it's time to have a conversation I don't have imagination at all.
It happen all the time, even at place or with people that I feel very confortable with.

If I try to speak of something that I really know or I really like,
I don't have enough imagination to find what to say, even really simple sentences.

I don't have find how to deal with that yet.

Huh, I've always been extremely imaginative. However my parents (Dad has AS, Mom has traits) completely lack imagination.

AS minds are very different from NT

AS by definition do nut understand NT

NT probably do not understand AS

Most shrinks are probably NT

Therefore most shrinks do not understand AS

Including AS imagination

As a little kid my favorite way of playing was to beome someone else...I would BECOME Pinnochio (I was obsessed with Pinnochio)..I would walk around in overalls and a hat with a feather in it and I just WAS Pinnochio...I took it very seriously..

thats sounds about right. now watch how many people who said they didnt have imaginations because then they wouldnt have As say they have imaginations

specific situation = social situations.

Creativity in this contexts means being able to come up with neurotypical understanding of
the social situation.

Imagination and creativity related to all other matters except social situations is not reduced in aspergers.

I hope not, because I was using the fact that I have a very strong imagination as proof that I don't have AS

Can anyone else give me more information on this? As in, definite proof one way or the other, with references or quotes?



That's what I'm like. I've always had major anxiety about asking for things and breaking rules, even small ones, because I have no idea how people are going to react. This causes some problems when I do something "rude" and then can't understand why my parents/ friends get annoyed (this has lessened considerably as I got older, but it still occurs sometimes). It seems like most other people automatically know what to do and say in social situations, but I have to try and work it out and then make a leap of faith.

On the other hand, I now have a repuatation as the guy to ask if you want honest opinions on your fashion choices

This is kind of besides the point, but while we're on the subject, can anyone tell me how to politely refuse to go out with someone? There's this girl in school who's been making some fairly obvious signs that she likes me for the last 3 years and I'm afraid she'll make a move soon now that we're close to graduating.

My first instinct is to just say "I don't like you in that way". Should I do that, or soften it up a bit?

Courtship makes no sense

That makes sense. It was definitely more the “social” stuff that I didn’t like to pretend. The girl who lived next door to me always wanted to play “house” or “school”. It never made any sense to me and she was always correcting me and telling me what to do. Maybe she was just bossy, but I got this from just about every kid I ever tried to play with (“No! You’re supposed to do THIS when I do THAT”) Other kids’ pretend games just seemed to have too many unwritten rules. Just like real social communication. Just way too many damn rules.

As for the not being able to predict outcomes in social situations, I can certainly agree with that. “Pretend play” with other kids is definitely a social situation, so it’s no wonder I always seemed to screw it up. I never understood what the other kids were trying to do, or what was expected of me. I’m still that way now.

I had imagination to spare, when I was able to use it.

Interesting thread.

Hey, I can relate to this! I severely lack the ability of time management...I would set up outrageous schedule for myself, unable to imagine the outcome and then screw up...Somebody help me!

Time management is a big issue for me, too. When I'm getting ready for work in the morning, I need my routine. That routine includes having the TV tuned in to the Weather channel so I can gauge my progress by hearing the regularly timed segments (local forecast means it's 7:20. Allergy report means it's 7:28. Another local forecast means it's 7:30. Local forecast is over means I"M LATE!! !) I didn't even realize I was doing it until my husband turned off the TV a few minutes early a few times, and left me completely disoriented.

I certainly don't belong to the subgroup of "mad imagination/out of touch with reality" Aspies, although I have grown to appreciate bizarre/eccentric humour in my late teens. I didn't "pretend" as a kid, but I did "become" a few things, exactly like Lorna Wing describes (and also like Attwood describes, in the case of the girl who "became" a blocked toilet for several weeks).

I can be quite creative but in play imagination has always been absent for me - I did the autie-typical lining up, stacking, sorting etc. stuff as a kid and had a lot of trouble getting my head around the fact that the miniature food items and packages in my "supermarket" playset were not actually real. I had many an argument with my parents and cousins which usually ended up in me being bitterly disappointed. (They felt so real, I had a coffee bean package that had little things inside that made it feel EXACTLY like real coffee beans)

I was told by someone that it meant that AS children could not do imaginative group (social) play, like when kids will play house or something. This would fit me... I was very imaginative as a child, playing alone, but I went blank if I had to play in a group.