Thumper Imagines
Thumper, as a general rule, has not been very good at “pretend play.” He is a very grounded little boy. When he plays with a thing, it is whatever that thing is. A phone is a phone. A block cannot be a phone. A spoon cannot be a wand. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
This was made painfully obvious lately when I sat in on a ADOS (autism diagnostic observation schedule) re-testing of Thumper (required for insurance purposes, because goodness knows that he might have outgrown his diagnosis and insurance MUST be convinced that his therapy is necessary…. but I digress on how much they suck right now), and during testing, the psychologist could not interest Thumper in the least about caring for the baby doll. Or throwing it a pretend birthday party. Or could be convinced that the Play-Doh was a birthday cake, and the little plastic stick in the “cake” was a birthday candle.
This is the same kid who sees a lit candle in the bathroom, and MUST sing “Happy Birthday,” because that’s what you do when candles are lit, right???
So no, he is not buying your pretend cakes and candles when he knows what the real things are like. Pfffft.
Like his brother before him, it will take some time to get his imagination jump-started. And it will probably take scripting and Star Wars to do it.
Because when you just want to recreate a fight scene, why not just do it yourself, all by yourself?
But this was the first time I had actually seen him do something like this.
Baby steps!
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