Imaginary friends, soft toys and learning. How does your child’s imaginary play support their development?

Early research took a rather negative view of children who had imaginary friends with suggestions that this could be linked to problems with social skills. In the 1940s book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, Dr Benjamin Spock suggested that if a child had an imaginary friend after the age of four, “a child psychiatrist, child psychologist or other mental-health counsellor should be able to find out what they are lacking.”^[1] You might be pleased to hear that recent research has shown a rather more positive impact of imaginary friends and you definitely don’t need to worry it’s a sign that your child is ‘lacking’ anything.  

We talk about imaginary friends; researchers describe imaginary companions – whatever we call them research has shown benefits of having one (or more!).  

It is thought that between a third and two thirds of school-age children have an imaginary companion, but some children begin to have them during their preschool years.^[2] 

Recently, researchers have looked at the role of imaginary companions in different ways and research suggests positive outcomes for children with imaginary companions in terms of: 

• Social cognition 
• Creativity 
• Sociability 
• Making complex narratives 

The research into imaginary companions includes children who have an invisible companion as well as those who attribute human characteristics to toys or objects and develop play with these objects.  

It is thought that play with imaginary companions gives children the opportunity to practise social interactions and to think about other points of view as well as to develop language and ideas as they communicate their imaginary friend’s thoughts to those around them.^[3] 

References: 

[1] Spock, B. (1946). The common sense book of baby and child care. Duell, Sloan and Pearce 

[2] Fernyhough, C., Watson, A, Bernini, M., Moseley, P & Alderson-Day, B. (2019). Imaginary companions, inner speech and auditory hallucinations: What are the relations? Frontiers in psychology. 10  

[3] Trionfi, G. & Reese, E. (2009) A Good Story: Children with imaginary companions create richer narratives. Child development. 80 (4) pp 1301-1313.