Is pretend play really abstract?

Post Reply New Topic

I have been told pretend play is abstract thinking but I read in a school textbook on Child Growth and Development when I was 17 that children don't do abstract thinking till they reach their preteens. That explained to me why the work started to get hard around fifth grade. Because I’m a concrete thinker, the work started to get too hard for me to do and by the time I was in seventh grade, I couldn’t do any of it so I needed extra help.
So if pretend play is abstract and little kids aren’t abstract thinkers, then how can they possibly do pretend play then if they are concrete thinkers? I thought all it is is imagination. If you don’t have an imagination, then pretend play is hard for you. That’s probably why autistic kids don’t do pretend play because they lack imagination. That’s what I’ve read in books and websites.
When my boyfriend said pretend play is too abstract I told him but I read in the textbook that kids don’t start doing abstract thinking till they reach their preteens so pretend play can’t be abstract or little kids wouldn’t be doing it then so I asked him that question about it and he couldn’t even answer it. Maybe because I proved him wrong.

I'm an abstract thinker and have been all my life. I have a visual memory and I learn through visualization and observation. I've always been able to pick things up just by watching them, I've always connected patterns and concluded why things were the way they were through observation and connecting patterns and I was always creating my own theories and finding ways to apply these and test if they were true or gather more information to prove them wrong or right.

Play pretend is idealistic. It can be abstract but than you have the rationals who are abstract just the same. I could think of many many incredible posibilities and outcomes and idea's that my favorite character of one show could have happen, I would always continue to build on the story line after the series ended through analysis and observation and apply it logically. I'm still very logic and I still hated playing pretend because everyone was so irrational and never "did it right".

I don't agree that aspies can't be abstract thinkers. I am concrete and have trouble with Abstracts but it dosn't mean we can't learn.
As far as imagination. I have way to much of that I just don't agree with the fact that kids can't do abstracts. It sounds like just another NTs trying to generalise

Yeah pretend play is more creative imagination than true abstract thinking.

Even for those who are weak in the fields of creativity or imagination though deductive reasoning and experience can allow them to logically extrapolate the details of a scenario with only a small amount of creative input.

Such as Cyclosarin's example of placing their favorite television character in a new situation and building the story from there based upon their experience with the show and knowledge of the characters habits, abilities, weaknesses, etc.

In any case I believe most professionals are confusing a lack of capacity for abstract thinking with a lack of ability in using nonverbal clues to provide the information necessary to understand a particularly vague abstraction.

I found this rather confusing when trying to figure out if I was AS.

I did pretend that I was Annie Oakly and did a lot of Kung Fu martial arts(my verssion,leaping around doing kicks.lol).But if someone asked me what I was doing...I wouldnt say..."I am Annie Oakly"...I would have said that I was pretending that I was Annie Oakly.

I did think my stuffed animals were real and sentiant beings and that I was from another planet...but I wasnt "pretending"this,I believed it.

Likedcalico,

I can handle abstract reasoning. I can also imagine. I doubt many here REALLY have a problem with either. NTs will use literal thinking, etc... to "prove" AS people can't think abstractly, but literal thinking is about attitude and present knowledge, and not about ability. Heck, I think I learned PLENTY of idioms. In fact, I even learned some spanish, german, and danish ones. Yet some here talk of people like phil saying stuff that just sounds WRONG!

AS thinking...

Look for answer
Found result
Give found result....

NT thinking...

Look for answer
Found result
Look for answer
Found result
Give some found result....

I've always been just fine with pretend play. In fact, I still do play pretend actually. It's like I have this need to do so. Am I just crazy?

Given that the majority of me
imaginary friends were geometric
shapes, I'm not sure how much
more abstract pretend play could
be.