The Assessment of Elaborated Role‐play in Young Children: Invisible Friends, Personified Objects, and Pretend Identities

Abstract

Role‐play (i.e., pretending in which children imagine and act out the part of another individual) was assessed with child interviews and parent questionnaires about invisible friends, personified objects, and pretend identities in a sample of 208 young children. Children who engaged in role‐play did not differ from other children in age or vocabulary comprehension. However, they were better able to generate a pretend conversation than other children and were rated by their parents as less shy. The overall pattern of results suggests that the capacity to interact with imaginary others (in and out of the lab) is more closely associated with individual differences in personality than developmental level.

Parental behaviour and children's creation of imaginary companions: A longitudinal study

“…With regard to approach, infants with novelty preferences may be more likely to have an IC compared to those without such preferences. The results may support the previous evidence that children with ICs are less shy than those without ICs (Taylor, Sachet, Maring, & Mannering, 2013). Taylor et al (2013) suggested that children who are less shy and do not hesitate in social situations may prefer to interact with real-life friends, and their pretend play would reflect these experiences.…”

“…The results may support the previous evidence that children with ICs are less shy than those without ICs (Taylor, Sachet, Maring, & Mannering, 2013). Taylor et al (2013) suggested that children who are less shy and do not hesitate in social situations may prefer to interact with real-life friends, and their pretend play would reflect these experiences. In other words, children who like interaction with real friends may like to play with pretend friends.…”

“…In previous Western research, the percentage of children who had an invisible friend was similar to the percentage who had a personified object (Gleason, 2002). In some cases, the incidence of an invisible friend was higher than that of a personified object (Taylor et al, 2013). In contrast, in our study, less than 10% of the Japanese children created an invisible friend, whereas about 40% of the children had a personified object.…”

Supporting the development of empathy: The role of theory of mind and fantasy orientation

“…The phone task (Tahiroglu, Mannering, & Taylor, ; Taylor, Sachet, Maring, & Mannering, ) was designed to test children's ability to generate a pretend conversation with an imaginary partner. Children were first shown a toy phone and asked if they knew how to use it.…”

Relationship between implicit false belief understanding and role play: Longitudinal study

“…The first two are termed Imaginary Companions (ICs). About half of the children tend to have ICs (Bouldin & Pratt, 1999;Gleason, 2004;Moriguchi, Sakata, Ishibashi, & Ishikawa, 2015;Moriguchi & Shinohara, 2012;Taylor, 1999;Taylor, Carlson, Maring, Gerow, & Charley, 2004;Taylor, Sachet, Maring, & Mannering, 2013). Cross-sectional and longitudinal research shows that children with IC performed better on theory-of-mind tasks compared to those without IC (Lillard & Kavanaugh, 2014;Taylor & Carlson, 1997).…”