Imaginary Companions in pretend play

Sarah Ennis
Blog #4

One of my most favorite topics of this course is the phenomenon of pretend play. Pretend play provides researchers with information about a child’s ability to perform abstract mental representations and learn social skills. Because most children engage in pretend play one could deduce that it must serve an important purpose in a child’s social and cognitive development. Otherwise, some children would engage in pretend play and others would not. Alison discussed different forms of role play. Two of the types of role-play, object or no objects as vehicle, often take the form of an imaginary or invisible companion. Not all children report having imaginary friends or companions. Alison Shawber discussed a study from her lab which found that 65% of children had Imaginary Friend(s) (Taylor, et al., 2004). My question is what determines whether a child will have an imaginary or invisible companion? One place to begin searching for the answer to this question is by considering that which separates children with IC’s versus children who do not (a child who may only pretend play with other children and not create or play with an IC)? She discussed certain characteristics that children with IC’s often possess including enhanced verbal ability, sociability, creativity, and others. Based on these enhanced abilities of children with IC’s and the fact that most children engage in some form of pretend play lead me to reason that the existence of an IC could be a child’s unconscious desire for additional social interaction perhaps to gain or sharpen certain social or mental skills. Children may not always have access to other children to play with, which may force create an imaginary friend or companion in order to fulfill this desire. Furthermore, a child may create an IC in the absence of actual children because they prefer ceratin characteristics of an IC versus an actual child. For instance, with an IC a child can control what elements of pretend play they explore as well as the behaviors or actions of the IC. This allows more flexibility, exposure to more creative play and possible more fun for the child. Interestingly, what type of play a child engages in is individual to each child. Although the answers to why pretend play exists may not be so explicit, implicitly it may serve an extremely important role in social and cognitive development.