Imaginary Friends

HattieLove

Lurking...

I'm an early childhood/elementary education student and I'm doing my final project for my developmental psych class on imaginary friends, and I was hoping you all could help! Feel free to just share or here are some questions for guidance.

1. Does your child have an imaginary friend? 

2. How long have they had this friend?

3. Has it always just been one friend? Do they cycle between imaginary friends?

4. Do they engage in a lot of other imaginary play? Does most of it include their imaginary friend or not?

5. How often is their imaginary friend around? Is it every once in a while or the majority of the time? 

Thanks so much for your help! Also posted on the preschool board.  

neverblushed

HattieLove:

OMG -- I have quite an answer for you!  DS has a whole imaginary WORLD!!

1. Does your child have an imaginary friend?

Yes.  His name is Kusa-9.  He's a magical butterfly "superhero boss" who lives in a volcano. He has a black body with blue and purple wings. He carries a lightning bolt sword and can fly you over the sun.  He can also beat up DS's sister, I've been told ;-)

Kusa-9 lives on a planet called "Purple World" but he can travel to other worlds.  The world we live in is called "White World."  He is the 7th child in the Kusa family.  Kusa-1 and Kusa-2 are the parents.  Kusa-3 is the oldest brother.  He's apparently "in college."  Kusa-7 and Kusa-8 are boy/girl twins.  Kusa-7 and Kusa-9 are the closest of the siblings. Kusa-5 is deaf and uses sign language. There are over 100 Kusa children, but only 3-11 appear regularly.  Many other characters from stories, TV, and video games occasionally show up in Purple World.  Kusa-9 sometimes travels to other places (e.g. Hogwarts or the Star Wars galaxy) to learn other skills such as magic or Jedi stuff.  Kusa-9 has played Quidditch (Seeker) on the Gryffindor team and has received Jedi training with Obi-Wan Kenobi, or so I've been told.  

2. How long have they had this friend?

This friend appeared when DS was about 4, but Purple world has grown more complex in recent years.

3. Has it always just been one friend? Do they cycle between imaginary friends?

DS will pretend to be several different characters, but Kusa-9 has been the most developed.  I think he represents the idealized part of my son.  DS also has a naughty imaginary friend who represents all the infantile, regressive aspects of a young child.  This character is "Wedwan."  Occasionally, DS will take the role of "Wedwan" or blame things on Wedwan.  Fortunately, the family has seen less of Wedwan as DS has gotten older!  (Wedwan is SUPER annoying, as you can imagine, but we all understand why he's important to DS, so we roll with it!)

4. Do they engage in a lot of other imaginary play? Does most of it include their imaginary friend or not?

YES!  A ton!  I would say his pretend play is evenly divided between Purple World and other stuff.  He even shared the existence of this imaginary friend with his real best friend.  The real best friend has an imaginary friend named Mystery.  Sometimes Kusa-9 and Mystery even play together!  Cutest.thing.ever!!

5. How often is their imaginary friend around? Is it every once in a while or the majority of the time?

Either Kusa-9 comes around or DS "goes" to Purple World occasionally, mostly on car trips when there's not much to do.  When he was younger than 6, the boundary between Purple World and the real world was very foggy.  He would mention Kusa-9/Wedwan all the time, as if the two characters really existed and did things on their own, if that makes sense.  Now, at nearly 7 1/2, it's more like he'll initiate pretend play by saying to his sister, "Hey, want to play Purple World?"  There's a very clear understanding that these are imaginary games now, whereas before it was more like these characters were just with him all the time.