Lack of imagination and creative play?! !!

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Is it true that AS children have lack of imagination and creative play??? I never found this to be true, but here thats what it says!! ! http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=212

It BS. Its part of the missunderstanding that is going on around Autism and Aspergers.

I dislike the negativity of the focusing on the disablitys of people and none at all on what things aspergers mite be good at.

looking back, I'd have to say that my imagination was great! But my play was more concrete. the stick couldnt be a sword unless it had a hilt ( that I promptly attached with string and tape), the doll cant fly with out wings (again attached with tape) but it was still creative.

I have always had a very active imagination and very abstract too. Though it maybe because My Cerebral Palsy I am affected on My right side, so I write with My left hand. Though who really knows in the end.

I think I lacked imagination and creative play as a child - I never "played", really. After I taught myself to read at 4 that's all I did.

To this day I'm surprised when anything creative emerges from inside.

I've had a very strong Imagination as a kid. However, I was more likely to be drawing pictures, than I was to be playing.

What they call creative play is actually imitative play.
How we play is at least as creative, if not moreso.
The "single cause of social blindness" article on the front page kind of supports that idea, if you read it.

The difficuty playing in other kids' games might be a fair observation, but the interpretation of that seems to be off somewhat.

I had possibly too much imagination and creativity: the others couldn't or didn't want to follow where my ideas went. I could draw, or build Lego, for hours. Create new board games, or just sit and think!

But there were real and large problems, associated with not picking up social conventions, and I recall more than once getting into trouble for playing a game too well by the rules, having spotted something that was legal but "unthinkable".




I will consider obeying unwritten rules that are written down.

Yes, it's a falsehood which still seems to be rumbling around the professional community. I think it often more depends on the person's/child's level of functioning and whether or not some form of mental retardation might be crowding the picture.

Thankfully, more people I think are realizing this just isn't true for all. Especially the higher-functioning individuals.

No worries, Shades. It's just another example of when some professionals just really don't know what they're talking about.

They've added in "social imaginative play" to cover their butts, but at least in my childhood this was due to my poor social skills rather than any lack of imagination.

i agree that AS kids can have creative play, I see that with my two boys, where the "appropriate play" definition comes in i think is when they play it is very directive, they are directing which pway the paly should go. Wheras NT's allow each other to direct a give and take thing, not all of course but it is a natural flow. This was something I had to be taught (to play) during play therapy with my son. We now "play" 5 minutes a day. It was interesting learning how not to direct play.

Its ok I guess.

yeah, that's something that kind of got to me too. i feel i am very creative and have a great imagination--after all i've lived in so many worlds and had so many adventures. granted they were all in my head, but isn't that where creativity and imagination come from? my main problem was being able to somehow bring what was in my head to this world. i couldn't do the "play" thing, but it was still there inside of me.

now i can bring it out through writing, but one of the things that bugged me about what the specialist said was that my being able to write novels didn't seem to fit the diagnosis, but that after reading some of my work i was writing about what i had experienced or what others had related. now isn't that what ALL writers do???????

i think that stereotype should be changed. kind of like the stereotype we can't empathize. it's not that we can't do these things--we do (or at least i do), but i can't express it in a way that the general population can understand.

april

I used to have a very very good imagination, better than most kids my age, I had difficulty playing them with other children though because I expected them to exactly what I wanted etc and once I got a bit older the other children refused to play with me anyway. I still have a good imagination but it tends to be more repetitive now so I can't write aswell as I used to, now if I imagine something that amuses me I tend to keep imagining it again and again.

No that seems nothing more than a label. Steven Spielberg haves Aspergers and look at him. He's creative and imaginative genius I might add.

I have never been able to "play", as a child or an adult. I don't know how to be spontaneous and just have fun. Never did. Perhaps this is the quality they're referring to in the article. I had a really hard time when my kids were little playing with them. They're both NT, and very close in age, and I would watch in wonder as they spent countless hours in imaginary play, something I certainly never did. At times, though, I felt a bad mom because I didn't know how to join them. Didn't have a clue, knew something was missing but didn't know what it was. (I didn't find out about AS till last year) I don't know if I could even be taught to play. Sigh. I guess it is just me.

Pretty much. In my opinion what people call 'imagination' is usually just rearranging things you've experienced in new ways.