My nephew has an imaginary friend! He talks to him all the time and includes him in family discussions. He sometimes gets angry at his friend and at times laughs his head off with him! It was all very confusing at first, but we soon found out more about those make believe buddies.
According to a study conducted by Elaine Reese, associate professor of Otago University, and Gabriel Trionfi, of Clark University, children with imaginary friends have more advanced narrative skills than those who don't have imaingary friends. That is probably due to the fact that children with imaginary friends included more conversation in their fiction stories.
Parenting expert, Armin Brott, says imaginary friends are wonderful for stimulating creativity and even acting as a confidant when there is no one else to talk to.
Nevertheless, you do have to remember, children need contact with other children to learn about those ever important socialization skills. Also, help your child understand that shifting responsibility for wrongdoings to his/her imaginary friend is ok once in a while, but that does not mean that he can be exempt from responsibilities.
So if your kid introduces you to a friend you can't exactly see, greet him with respect as this relationship is bringing more advantages than "meets the eye".
Two of my three kids had imaginary friends and I guess this was a way to show us they could be responsible of taking care of their "buddie"and also they had control in teaching them good manners.
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating to watch them interact and be able to see the hiden message within the conversations !!