“Imagine”, a book by Hervé Tullet

What does it mean imagination for a kid with autism?

“Just imagine a world where everything is an adventure and there’s a surprise around every corner!

Whether it is going places, on the sea or in the country, inside the home, shopping, playing, dreams or memories, you can go on an adventure travelling through French author and illustrator Hervé Tullet’s book where every page has something different.”

This is what people say about this book. I already talk about this author in another post and I just think that his books are great to explore the world of literature and imagination with the kids!

In this case, “Imagine”, as the title says, is great to explore the imagination of a child. Bright and colourful, with cut-outs, special papers and even a wrap-around fold-out poster, it’s an adventure just to turn the pages of it and see what’s next!

To have more fun, you can choose to buy the book plus a box with blocks inside of different shapes and colors, great to build up a copying imitation skill from 2D to 3D!

Imagination and imitation skills are both very important in every kid, but especially in special need kids. Many autistic children (and adults) struggle with a special type of imagination called social imagination.

But what it is? First of all, it’s not a lack of the ability to be creative, indeed! Sometimes they can be more creative than us and they can have so many ideas that we even didn’t think of!

Social imagination allows us to understand and predict the behaviour of other people. It also helps us to make sense of abstract ideas, and to imagine situations outside our immediate daily routine.

This amazing mum explains in the perfect way the difference between “Imaginative play” and “Social imagination”.

Have a think about how many things you can do with your kid in general and then don’t be afraid to explore everything with him!