Children examine emotions with imaginary playmates.
Your child may or may not divulge that she interacts with imaginary playmates. While not all children have imaginary playmates, many do. These children are often reative, imaginative and have good verbal skills. In these scenarios, the child calls the shots, dictates what happens and plays the leading roles in the action. Children planning and taking on different roles with one or more supporting imaginary playmates learn confidence in themselves and their abilities.
Playmate
A child with imaginary playmates may be the family's only child, the oldest child or spend much time alone.Once believed to be a problem behavior, having imaginary playmates now is considered normal behavior with beneficial consequences.
Confidence
Children who interact with imaginary friends learn to lead in play situations. For instance, the child may play the role of the princess in the castle, the astronaut out in space, the cowboy herding cattle and heading off cattle thieves or the mother taking care of her baby.Imaginary friends provide social interaction that may be missing in the life of a child. Imaginary playmates offer a child the opportunity to invent friends that share certain areas of commonality. The children with imaginary friends create playmates with whom they feel comfortable. An imaginary friend fills the need for a playmate and provides a friend when no one else is available.
Creativity and Imagination
Imaginary playmates offer children a chance to expand and explore their creativity and imagination without any other adult or child limiting what they can and cannot imagine or do. Together with imaginary friends, children scale the heights of the highest mountains, fly into outer space or swim to the deepest parts of the ocean. In their play, children learn tell stories as they act out their creative scenarios.
Social Skills
Many children are immensely shy around adults, even sometimes around other children. Imaginary playmates provide children with the ability to dialogue as they speak for themselves and their imaginary friends without concern for how parents or others will react. Children create social situations with their imaginary playmates and develop social skills that assist them in interacting in the real world of people.
Emotional Development
Emotions are new to young children. They may not understand why they feel like laughing one minute and crying the next. Imaginary playmates help children explore their emotions in a safe and non-threatening way. They can show anger and no one gets hurt. They don't get scolded for testing out negative emotions. Children can laugh and their imaginary friends laugh with them. Imaginary playmates become comforters when children are hurting or sad. These special friends help children in their emotional development.
