Pretend Play Isn't Always Easy

Pretend play is often delayed in children on the Autism Spectrum.  Many children will eventually develop this type of play, but I'll be honest, it's taken a lot of practice with Charlie.  A lot of play activities Charlie has enjoyed as he's grown is typically playing on his own, parallel play with other kids, lining up the toys he plays with and playing with the 2 or 3 toys he really enjoys (trains, cars, keys).  And any time pretend play, or make-believe play is tried, it's often not understood and not grasped.

Lining up items was one of the first red flags when he was younger.  Everything was lined up.

Many times when Charlie is lining his toys up, his rigidity shows brightly- his inability to be flexible.  Usually when he has items lined up, there is a rhyme and reason to HOW they are lined up (in his mind).  And if anyone moves them or switches the order, you won't hear the end of it.

I remember this particular night vividly.  This was taken at 12:30am....yep, still wide awake....lining up his trains.

Even his keys are usually lined up and often categorized by shape

I remember so many times, watching therapy sessions or trying to get Charlie to play myself, different pretend play scenarios would be presented and then quickly shot down by Charlie.  Even the simplest of scenarios were never embraced.  Things like, "Charlie, I'm going to use this Lincoln Log as my magic wand."  And Charlie's response, "you can't do that.  It's not a magic wand, it's a Lincoln Log.  You can only build with it."

As Charlie has gotten older, his skills have improved.  And that's not without lots and lots of practice during therapy sessions and practice with mom, dad and brothers.  In the last year we've seen Charlie's ability to pretend play explode.  One therapy session a few weeks ago I was able to sit back and watch what all this practice has accomplished.

Charlie's therapist brought a pretend doctor kit and as you can see, Sunny was the lucky patient.  During this session, Charlie was able to pretend to give Sunny a haircut, some shots, took her temperature and gave her a bandaid for an owie.

These days we'll sometimes find Charlie playing cops and robbers with his brothers.  It's incredible the gains he's made over the years when we sit down and really look back at where he started.  There's a lot of work yet to do, but we sure are proud of how much he's accomplished so far.