An investigation of the verbal abilities of children with imaginary companions

Abstract

IThe purpose of this study was to investigate the language use of 40 children with imaginary companions (IC) and 40 children without imaginary companions (NIC) across two age levels: a younger group aged 4;O-5;ll and an older group aged 6;O-7;11.The study investigated the language of these children by examining their use of adverbial and relative clauses, complement clauses, colordinating conjunctions and modal types. The findings indicated that, compared with NICs, ICs used a significantly greater number of adverbial clauses, relative clauses, and and, with their use of but approaching significance. Overall, the results were interpreted as indicating that ICs use more mature language, and this demonstrates enhanced social-cognitive skills. It was concluded that the presence of imaginary companions is positively associated with language use and discourse competency of children.

Fantasy orientation constructs and related executive function development in preschool: Developmental benefits to executive functions by being a fantasy-oriented child

“…Additionally, these components of fantasy orientation can provide clearer definitions of fantasy orientation, allowing researchers to further explore relations with developing abilities, such as executive functions, theory of mind, and socialization. For example, children who exhibit high levels of cognitive aspects of fantasy orientation, such as having an imaginary companion, might display better cognitive skills, such as narration or theory of mind (Bouldin, Bavin, & Pratt, 2002;Taylor & Carlson, 1997;Trionfi & Reese, 2009). Future research may also consider whether certain fantasy orientation constructs contribute individually to social development (Gleason, 2002;Mauro, 1991;Nagera, 1969;Mathis, McInnis, Pierucci, & Gilpin, 2013;Taylor, Carlson, Maring, Gerow, & Charley, 2004).…”

The referential communication skills of children with imaginary companions

“…Bouldin, Bavin and Pratt (2002) reported that children with ICs produced a range of more complex sentence types in a narrative task than matched control children without imaginary companions. Children aged 4–8 years were required to provide a spontaneous narrative about an imaginary monster.…”

Pretend Companions (Imaginary Playmates): The Emergence of a Field

“…It is relevant to a diverse number of psychological phenomena. Some phenomena that already have received attention include children's acquisition of pretend identities (Taylor, Carlson, Maring, Gerow, & Charley, 2004), childhood imagination (e.g., D. G. Singer & Singer, 1990), theory of mind (Taylor & Carlson, 1997), children's reality testing (Bourchier & Davis, 2002), creativity (Kalyan-Masih, 1978), social development (e.g., Bouldin & Pratt, 1999;Gleason, 2002Gleason, , 2004b), children's coping (Taylor, 1999), coping in the elderly (Leger, 1987;Leger, Garoux, Tessier, & Chevalier, 1986;O'Mahony, Shulman, & Silver, 1984), delusional disorders (Von Broembsen, 1986), language development (Bouldin, Bavin, & Pratt, 2002;Piaget, 1955), characteristics of gifted children (Terman, 1926), object relations (Green, 1922), dissociation and dissociative identity disorder (Allison, 1998;Pica, 1999;Sanders, 1992;Silberg, 1998;Trujillo, Lewis, Yeager, & Gidlow, 1996), and even pretense by animals (Mitchell, 2002). A potentially unique contribution of pretend companions to understanding children's (and adults') behaviors is that they are naturally emitted by children.…”