Some kids don't really develop beyond literalism (which is what I'd term that-- not necessarily "reality" oriented, so much as not really wrapping their heads around extensions into the possible/imaginary FROM a starting point).
Kids in that stage may well have great imaginary play, etc. even-- but they don't necessarily go with external cues or anything. So "pretend that this is a telescope" may seem strange unless they initiate it themselves.
Kids like that find metaphors puzzling and will ask about idiom and metaphorical language, too.
Even in normal development, this kind of thing is normative up to a point in development-- where they begin to think more abstractly after developing complete theory-of-mind. Normal development places this about 4 yo, I think?
