I was curious when I read that spectrum disorders often result in a lack of imaginative play.? At first consideration, I didn?t think that rang true of Ty.? Ty loves to pretend and tries to get others to pretend with him frequently.

Upon further evaluation though, I had to admit that he is very limited in WHAT he pretends.? He likes to pretend about food and games.? That pretty much summarizes the extent of his imagination.

Not too long ago I wrote that Tanner loves non fiction and Ty loves fiction.? I also said that I was using the writing of non-fiction to help develop his writing skills.?? It seemed to be going well in the beginning but eventually I noticed that he had the exact same elements in his story every day.? To help, I gave him story starters.? He then became dependent upon the story starters but it still didn?t help anything where creativity was concerned because he simply made the story starters include the same elements.

His story will almost always involve the following:? (1)? References to schedules (2) a faux paux (someone trips or breaks something or gets mildly injured)? (3) a food item and (4) a video game.? Sounding familiar isn?t it?? I have tried to get him to imagine beyond that scope to no avail.? My recent study is helping me to understand what the barrier is and how typical this is of spectrum disorders.