Pretend Identities

Imagination begins at a very young age. Children learn the concept of "real" or "pretend" play and become able to distinguish the difference around the age of one year. Pretend play can take on three different forms; self as a vehicle, toy as vehicle, and nothing as a vehicle. The self as a vehicle is a type of play where the child takes on a pretend identity such as acting like superwoman, batman, or even a business man. Toy as a vehilce can be where the child gives personality to a toy such as a talking stuft animal, or it can be where the child uses objects in a way that is beyond there normal function. An example of this would be a block used to represent an airplane that flies around the room. The last type of pretend play covered in lecture was nothing as a vehicle. Such situations usually involve the child having an imaginary firend they play with and develop an entire persona for.
The type of pretend play that I was most intrigued by was the self as a vehicle. Starting from the age of one for about a year, I believed I was a cat. I refused to speak to anyone and would simply meow and run around in a Halloween costume that consisted of a black tail sowed to the black sweatshirt and cat ears. This is a typical pretend identity where the child imagines that she takes on characteristics of another being while wearing a speical costume, etc. My younger brother on the other hand, had a different form of pretend identity and decided at the age of four that he wanted to grow up to be a "big, huge, bald, black man." Such an identity formed from his love of basketball and he would sit in the driveway for hours pretending to dunk on his mini hoop set. His identity has a different spin that most pretend identities because he was awaiting the day when he could grow up and become his identity. His image displays a barrier to learning we discussed earlier in class in that he had not yet realized that race does not change as we grow up. One cannot decide to alter one's race as you could pick a new career.
My brother's alternate idea of identity causes me to wonder if pretend identities are something we engage in throughout our lives. As a young child, I had a strong love of animals and my pretending to be one may have been my desire to actually become one. My brother had a better concpet of reality but still a naive one. He knew that when you grow up you get to "be" something different than you are now and he assumed that encompassed everything. Adults still engage in this practice. If you were to ask college students what they are going to do when they graduate, each would have some sort of image in their head whether that image is to go to law school or to go back to living with their parents. It would be hard for many people to pursue a degree without having some image of what life may be like in the future. Our imagination gives us direction in life and helps us to plan out our path.
I think it would be very informative to run an imagination lab that tracked children's motivations for forming pretend indetities. It could possibly ask them why they chose such an identity and if they believe they can become that identity when they grow up. Does children's ability to engage in pretend play coincide or even for-tell the formation of a concept of the future? Do time and imagination go hand in hand?