Autism. imagination

 

We've been working on imaginative thinking over the past few weeks. We've been making good progress. Here's something I posted on the RDI website the other day.

We were reading a book called Slinki Malinki open the door, where a cat and a parrot open doors throughout the house and make all sorts of mess. The last door they open is the front door, outside which is a whole gang of dogs, ready to come inside and make more havoc.

BE: "Would a dog eat a parrot?"
me: "Yes. If it could catch it. Because parrots can fly. And dogs can't fly."
BE: "With their dog wings they can." (giggle and laugh)
me: "Dog wings! Wow! I wonder if cats have cat wings?"
BE: "People can have fairy wings."
BE: "I wouldn't have a fairy made out of sand."
me: "Made of sand? What would happen if a fairy was made of sand?"
BE: "What happens if we eat a cake out of sand?"
me (making an icky face): "Yuck!"

I don't think that sand fairies or sand cakes are from any script that I recognise. Nor have I seen dog wings anywhere in his repertoire, so I do think they were actually original! Wow!

Our consultant had this to say about it, which really helped me in having similar conversations.

Interesting... some nice imaginative ideas developing from Campbell which is wonderful to read! The next level of development is that he takes up the 'leads' you introduced and follows these. Here's the conversation broken down into leads taken and not...
BE: "Would a dog eat a parrot?"
me: "Yes. If it could catch it. Because parrots can fly. And dogs can't fly." LEAD
BE: "With their dog wings they can." (giggle and laugh) LEAD
me: "Dog wings! Wow! I wonder if cats have cat wings?" LEAD
BE: "People can have fairy wings." NOT
BE: "I wouldn't have a fairy made out of sand." NOT
me: "Made of sand? What would happen if a fairy was made of sand?" LEAD
BE: "What happens if we eat a cake out of sand?" NOT
me (making an icky face): "Yuck!" LEAD