"Nothing is freer than the human imagination." David hume
How many of us have not had an imaginary friend in childhood? Or we have seen children who have imaginary friends. Many times we have wondered if this is normal or if it is worrisome? Does it mean that the child has difficulty communicating with others?
It is very common for children to have invisible friends, They can be human, animal or fantasy creatures and are commonly created based on their gender, usually girls create female friends and boys male.
Children can easily describe what their invisible friends look like, how old they are, what their characteristics are and how they behave, they can even relate experiences or stories they have lived with them.
The fact that children have invisible companions should not seem disconcerting to us, for although children imagine these very vividly, according to a study by Taylor and Mottweiler, they have a very clear understanding that their imaginary friends do not exist, that they are a fantasy. In this study they also state that it is healthy for the development of children have invisible companions and it should not be understood as something pathological or worrisome.
Why are invisible friends created?
According to a 2004 article by Taylor M in Developmental Psychology, 65% of children under the age of 7 have or have had imaginary friends at some point in their lives. These imaginary friends can have for children uA comfort function, when they are going through difficult situations, helps them deal with difficult moments or with their fears, since the child when interacting can project on his imaginary friend much of his worries and thus vent, he also feels accompanied when going through situations that he is afraid to go through alone, this in many cases gives them more strength to overcome traumatic events.
Another important function of imaginary friends is that of socialization, since the child practices his ways of relating to other individuals, of learning to speak clearly, express his ideas, take turns, invent games and overcome conflicts by living with his fictional partner.
Dr Karen Majors spoke at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Division of Education and the Child of the British Psychological Society about the benefits of having an imaginary friend, says that this stimulates and exercises the imagination and creativity of children, helps them distinguish between fantasy and reality, stimulates private speech, helps them regulate their behavior, facilitates companionship, creativity in creating stories and learn to cope with new life events.
What to do with a child who has imaginary companions?
It is important not to question children harshly about the existence of their imaginary companions, since deep down they know that they are not realWe should not discredit or deny them either, this would restrict their fantasies and children may feel frustrated.
We must be careful not to let children evade the responsibility of assuming their mistakes by attributing them to their imaginary friends (I did not break the plate, my friend broke it ...), in these cases, If the child does not accept his guilt, we can tell him to apologize to him and his friend and to both pick up the broken plate.
Observation is usually very useful, through it we can discover if the children are revealing things that they cannot verbalize through interaction with their imaginary friend. In addition, the fact that they can enhance their creativity will be useful as a tool to face various types of problems.
We must respect the space of children to have their invisible companions and come into play with these only if the children ask us to, we must not interfere too much to allow them to have control, as it is their own fantasy.
Let us remember that it is perfectly normal and healthy in the childhood stages to create these invisible companions, we should not be scared or think that it is something worrying, but we must accept children, respect their fantasies and let them keep control of them. .
Thank you very much Dolores, for sharing this valuable information, in fact I thought otherwise, I came to think that it was our duty to instill in our children under 7 years of age, to refrain from having this kind of friends.
It is understandable that children keep these friends, so that they learn to interrelate with other people, I imagine that while they differentiate reality from imagination.