Pretend Play

There are three types of pretending play. There are self as vehicle, object as vehicle and nothing as vehicle. For instance, a boy could pretend himself as the Spiderman. In addition, it seems that imagined friends could vary from human beings to a green alien. Clearly, the contexts of pretend play might depend on what information that a child has received. For example, it is possible that children in United States are easily to watch a cartoon or hear a story about aliens. So, children might imagine a friends looks like an alien. Children must have enough basic knowledge about human and the world to perform pretend play. Furthermore, based on the knowledge or perception that children have, children would have various contexts of pretend play. So, I would like to share with my experience of pretend play in this blog.

I remembered that I changed the contexts of pretend play with the trend of the media such as movies or animations. When I was around age 5, I liked to watch Kung-fu series movies. My brother and I were fascinated how the main characters killed their enemies by one kick or some fabulous Wu-Shu. Additionally, we were fascinated how main character could jump so high in the movie (If you have watched the movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you would understand what I mean here.) Therefore, during our play time, I usually pretended that I was a person who is really good at using sword. I also used the umbrella to pretend as a sword. In addition, I jumped on the mattress and pretended that I could jump really high like the people in the Kung-Fu movies. Later, when I was into the animation about a girl who has powerful magic, I started to pretend that I have powerful magic and liked to fight with other friends who pretend as devils. In short, my pretend play would influenced by the media.

Furthermore, unlike other children, I had no memory for having an imagined friend before 6. It is possible that I did not remember my imagined friends due to the childhood amnesia. However, I suspected that I did not have any imagined friend before age 6m because it is not necessary for me. Before age 6, I not only had my brother but also had my cousins to be my companions. I also had a group of friends in the kindergarten because I went to the kindergarten around age 2 and half. We hanged out and played together everyday. After my cousins, my brother and my friends who are older than I in the kindergarten went to the elementary school, I started to have an imagined friend. Thus, I think that children would create an imagined friend when they could not find any actual companion.

In conclusion, I am impressed how creative that children’s imagination. And, children’s imagination probably is inspired by the media across culture. Moreover, based on my own experience, it is possible that most of children have imagined friend because they do not have actual companions. Furthermore, I wonder if the imagined friend would relate to the schizophrenia. It seems that most of Hollywood movie portrait that adults who have imagined friend would have the schizophrenia. Recently, I have heard the news that a teenager created an imagined boyfriend due to the sexual abused. So, it would be interesting to investigate the relationship between imagined friend which were created after age 7 or older and the abnormal behavior in the future.