? about ’pretend play’ | Autism PDD
Hey I know how it is when we want to see our kids progress. When we first started in to therapy and I was learning all this I was so excited telling the therapists how Tyler was talking and doing pretend play. They asked what he did sharing in my excitement and waiting to hear... as I told them how he was acting out sceens from his favorite video and talking to us as if we were the characters they shot my excitement down informing me that was echolalia... I said No the TV wasnt on! (Like that makes a difference LOL) Point is its is hard to know and we all can be confused about it and want so badly to see progress that sometimes we grasp at things in hope.
Kellie its great he interacted with you and you were able to keep his focus... its a great start but I am with Sarah's view that it was you initiating the pretend play and himjoining in which for alot of kids on the spectrum is a great acheivement in itself there too! Great Job and keep up the good work!
Hi Kellie, Wow what a great step in the right direction ! it seems to me that he was picking up on your lead, but did infact join in on the game , a huge feat in an of itself !keep up with the play and interaction and i'm sure he'll be seeking you out to play aswell. one of Connors favorite things to do is to pretend that one of his stuffed animal is eating his breakfast. It's a riotThanks for your insight, everyone! I kind of thought maybe it wasn't him pretending after I wrote it out and read it, but figured it didn't hurt to ask! I'm not disappointed. I know this is a long slow road we're on and I'm just happy that he's happy and willing to play with me. :)
Tonight while I was cooking on the BBQ, he was watching me thru a glass door. He smooshed his face on the inside and I pressed back on the outside (the glass was clean!), making faces at each other and giggling away. :) You're all correct that certainly mimicking is very important (and, frankly, something else that Luke has had difficulty with in the past but which seems to be steadily improving) and I appreciate your encouragment!
Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
Kellie
you shouldn't feel discourage or disappointed, i relate it to my nt daughter, she had to be shown how to play with certain things, if it wasn't for that you'd have little girls just dragging baby dolls behind them wherever they went! This is such a great start!!!Kellie,
I agree even if he hasn't invented his own play sinareo yet, the fact that he finds humor in your pretend play is a huge step. He's enjoying the games. I'm so happy for you both!
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK (PLAY
Nelle I'm not sure really. Aiden will sometimes mimic me or dd when we pretend play. But it's only mimic and only if he feels in the mood to mimic us. And he gets bored of it quickly. I think pretend play is more when they do it themselves. Like if he intiated it and was making the dog eat his food or something that would be pretend play. As far as being a step on the path to pretend play, I dont know. Ds gets a kick out of things I do too, but it hasn't seemed to help his play to be more "normal." Not saying that maybe in your case it's the same. I hope it means something for you. Im too new at this to really know what Im talking about lol. But Im doing the same things you are. Watching everything and wondering if it's a good sign of something. Anytime I think Aiden is pretending even if he is just mimicing dd for entertainment I get excited. Dd is the only child he ever interacts w/ or mimics so she is very important in that respect. I hope someone else can give better answers on this. :-) Amber I would say that was You pretending and Luke communicating to you that he wanted you to continue what you were doing cause he thought it was funny.... I also think this is a GREAT way to teach Luke to pretend play.... we do this with Zach all the time...... kids need to be taught that too... *smiles* just like everyone else. I'm with Zachiesmom. It sounds like he was enjoying the "game". I'm very
Anyway, please be honest with me if this is 'pretending' or not (which, by the way, Luke usually doesn't do):
Luke was eating his waffle this a.m. in his high chair and I brought
his Clifford dog over and pretended to feed it. Luke watched, but
then looked at me like I was crazy for trying to feed a stuffed
animal. Anyway, then I had Clifford kind of leaning on Luke's
tray and sniffing his food. Luke giggled and started tapping his
hand on the tray. So I tapped Clifford's paws on the tray.
Luke had a big grin on his face, looking at Clifford, and kept tapping
away, until he stopped and held his hand up. So I stopped and
held Clifford's paws up. This brought Luke into utter hysterics
of laughter! So we continued on like that for about 10 mins
(waking Daddy up in the process 
) ... with Luke tapping, then stopping, Clifford copying him, then Luke laughing "with" Clifford like it was a huge shared joke.
So what do you think? Was that Luke pretending ... or ME
pretending and Luke getting a kick out of it? And is that a step
towards Luke 'learning' how to pretend??
You experienced Moms out there must think I'm a basketcase!! 
Kellie
impressed that he was mimicing! As yet my Leo does not mimic.
My understanding of pretend play is similar to what Dovesmom
described, and also includes taking objects like a box and pretending it is
a car by pushing it on the ground, etc.
HTH.
x
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