Autistic kids don’t lack imaginative play, it just might look different than the imaginative play of allistic kids.

#AutismAwareness #AutismAcceptance

While other kids were dressing up and pretending to be superheroes and princesses for Halloween, I was walking around as a functioning cardboard soda vending machine that dispensed ‘thank you’ notes upon payment of candy.

I lined up empty cans of Coca-Cola on my shelf, and arranged rocks in small boxes, and searched through pennies to complete my collection.

Lining up objects WAS imaginary play.

I was a shopkeeper, a museum curator, a keeper of the rarest stones and coins.

When I was hiding from other kids in church closets and unused music rooms, I was playing pretend all by myself, seeking refuge in hidden vaults and undiscovered caves.

I couldn’t ‘play pretend’ with the other kids, because I was too busy being a zookeeper; digging reptile enclosures in my desert backyard, memorizing facts about the the local flora and fauna, leading tours to my patient family members and the unappreciative neighbor kids.

What allistics see as repetitive, pointless behavior is often imaginative play.

I’d make rivers with the garden hose, waves in the bathtub and waterfalls in the sink.

The water running over my skin was sensory bliss, but I was also playing pretend.

TO CLARIFY:

Some autistics really don’t ‘do’ pretend. But that doesn’t make it any less valid.

https://twitter.com/autistictic/status/1249354400432361472?s=21 https://twitter.com/autistictic/status/1249354400432361472

And to be clear, my lining up objects, making waves in the tub, etc. was MOSTLY about creating order and enjoying sensations. That was always the driving force behind my style of play.

But I was personally still playing pretend.