Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Tayto Louboutins... Imagine That!




Imagination... its something that has been said is lacking in our children but is something that I have noticed Munchkin does have. Perhaps the countless hours of play therapy I did with her from pre diagnosis days has paid off. It is still something that the SLT said was a problem at her last assessment as she doesn't appropriately play with the toys, ie. she can spend ages setting out a play tea set, but doesn't pretend to feed dolls etc... when she is given toys at SLT she will organise them, tell you what they are, set them out etc., but peers her age will apparently play with them differently. She has an interest in toys and has for a long time, but her attention span can be compared to a goldfish with Alzheimer's at times, preferring to flit from activity to activity, leaving a trail of scattered toys and objects in her path... But she does like toys.




From an early age, Munchkin developed a passion for jigsaws. Strangely though, she never liked to look at the box to see what she was supposed to be making, preferring to work out the picture herself. It was the one thing that could keep her attention for prolonged periods. We started with the usual 2 piece ones and now at 3years and 3months of age, she will happily do 35 piece puzzles. The smaller ones she has now started doing upside down. We have a shelf full of boxes and bags of jigsaws in the kitchen, where if the opportunity arises, she will scale the counter to reach them! Unfortunately, we have a jigsaw munching dog who likes to chew them up so most of our puzzles are missing a piece or if the dog was in a particularly funny humour... the box!



Her love of jigsaws is so strong, that when introduced to them on the computer, mastered the art of dragging and dropping with the mouse to complete them... Only yesterday, when the mouse was missing, she figured out how to use the touch pad on the laptop! She never ceases to amaze me...

When I look at her playing these days, I see a little girls imagination growing and developing. I listen to her "talking" for her toys and realise that she is acting out scenes which she sees at home. I just hope she doesn't act out the fights the Gruesome Twosome have, as social services will be down to check us out ha ha. Can imagination be learned? I'm pretty sure I never taught her to put empty crisp packets on her feet like she did earlier. When I asked what she was doing, she replied "like a shoe." I know that it wasn't what I asked but was blown away by her imagination...

10 comments:

Taz said...

Button definitely has an imagination - it just isn't the same as another 8 year olds. He doesn't pretend to "be" anything - but he will chat on a toy phone for ages, he also can make up his own words to songs, loves to speak in funny voices and recently (shock horror) tell lies!! He broke a piggy bank in Nanas house and actually hid the pieces - I was never so happy in my life to find something hidden behind a curtain! great blog as always! xx

Andra said...

Great blog, Kyle has a imagination, it usually involves thomas the tank engine and in general the train crashes all the time, he talks to them and plays appropriately. He is able to tell me all the toys he has when he sees the ads on the tv for them and runs to get them to show me even though I know he has them!!

Elaine Caul said...

My sis grace (nearly 3) is very easily amused by muller yogurts. She likes the crunch corners best - she takes the biscuits and puts them in the yogurt and pretends they're mermaids swimming in the water! Certainly doesn't eat the yogurt - has too much fun playing with it!
Daniel used to pretend he was "married" to a porcelain doll he called Rachel, until she ended up smashed. But now he's getting a Wii off Santa (if he's very good!), so he is well over her by now!
Amazing what kids get up to! Brilliant post! xx

Autimom said...

our kids do amaze us all the time, charlene is the same and long may they continue too...

gr8 blog xxx

Jen said...

I can echo what the previous commentors said, my little fella does have imagination, even if it is his own kid of imagination. But don't we all have our own kind of imagination? I never liked playing with a tea set tbh. Love the photos, Munchkin is gorgeous and I see a bit of mischief in that smile too!! Great blog. Jen

Jean said...

T'riffic blog missus. At this stage, I think the triad of impairments is a big pile of poo. Bob has his own brand of imagination, but it is imagination nonetheless.
Being imaginative does not make our kids less autisitc...it just makes me question the tools that are used to diagnose them.
Munchkin has brains AND beauty (and imagination)...what'll she be like when she's 15??? Goes to show the magic of early intervention.
XXX

Lisamaree said...

What Jean said. the people lacking in imagination are the ones diagnosing our kids based on the triad of codswallop. Autism is a sensory disorder, you can imagine loads of stuff around that. xx

(and good girl munchkin, pretending shoes)

Rachel said...

Hey there Petunia- I have an autistic girl who's 6 and highly imaginative (I think!) like your daughter- who looks such a cutie btw!!! I think it may be that girls with autism present a bit differently to boys: my daughter Lyla LOVES jigsaws too!! I'd be interested to know what play therapy you did as I'm just about to implement some with Lyla.

I've just started blogging about autism at www.strange-beau.blogspot.com- come and take a look if you get a chance!

Rachelx

Petunia said...

Hi Rachel, thanks for visiting the blog and your lovely comment about my Munchkin :) What most people forget is that our kids don't instinctively pick up playskills so we need to model appropriate play with them many times before they will pick up how to use the toy. I modelled out lots of situations from her Peppa Pig dvds that she loved and backward chained how to use toys etc (ie if there were several stages needed to play with the toy, I did them all getting her to do the last stage and then the last two etc til she knew how to do it). Keep it simple and make exaggerate everything. If she gets it right or shows interest, make a big fuss. Munchkin LOVES social praise. Biggest advice I'd give is to get down on floor level with your little one and even if it looks like they aren't that interested, YOU play with the toys. I also got NT kids her age in to play so that she could see how.

Looking forward to reading your blog too xx

Popsie said...

i'm with you on this one, this was the one thing i kept insisting when my son was being assessed. we always thought he had an amaazing imagination but they kept saying that he was copying or scripting from movies. he does but he also can make an object fit his game and he can see it as something else isn't that imagination. lego is used as piles of rubbish that the hulk smashed but you know its still playing with toys. its great your munchkin does jigsaws, my little fella liked them too until he went to school now he thinks they are just work. love reading your stuff petunia xx

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