IC's

Alicia Bradshaw asked in her blog if the 35% of children that don't have IC's engage in other pretend play. I did a little research to try to clarify what Alison Shawber tried to convey during lecture. Paul Harris, author of The Work of the Imagination, cited Majorie Taylor's 1998 finding that two-thirds of children have IC's, if you consider the vehicle for orchestration to be an imaginary character, or a projection onto an external prop. She also is cited by Harris for claiming that the number goes up to three-quarters if you include children who engage in impersonation. Children as young as 2 have the ability to understand pretense. Harris demonstrated this by pretending to "wash teddy" using a toy teddy, shoe box (bath tub), and a wood brick (soap) with a 2 y.o. infant. The child quickly made sense of the situation and began to "help" wash teddy, and when the teddy was raised out of the "bath" the child claimed "he's all wet!" and "dried" the teddy. This showed that the child has a pretty sophisticated understanding of pretence. According to Taylor, as cited by Harris, children will engage in role play, even if they are by themselves, by impersonation or evoking an IC. There is a suggestion though that children who don't have IC's, do engage in pretend play, and are capable of having an IC. When I think of why a child may not have an IC, I can think of many possible reasons. Some parents may mistake an IC for a psychosis, and prohibit the child from that type of play. There may be religious reasons for prohibiting imaginary play. In a lecture by Majorie Taylor, she reported that Mennonite children are not allowed to engage in pretend play, which was due to their belief that pretend play is a waste of time. This doesn't mean that they don't develop pretence though, otherwise they wouldn't learn their religion. Many figures in religion such as angels are described as having many human features, but supernatural ones as well. This requires an understanding and development of pretence. In summary all children engage in pretend play of one type or another, and even though some may not develop (or just not report)an IC, children are still capable of it.