Studies
It has been theorized that children with imaginary companions may develop language skills and retain knowledge faster than children without them, which may be because these children get more linguistic practice than their peers as a result of carrying out "conversations" with their imaginary friends.
Kutner (n.d.) holds that:
Imaginary companions are an integral part of many children's lives. They provide comfort in times of stress, companionship when they're lonely, someone to boss around when they feel powerless, and someone to blame for the broken lamp in the living room. Most important, an imaginary companion is a tool young children use to help them make sense of the adult world.
Taylor, Carlson & Gerow (c2001: p. 190) hold that:
...despite some results suggesting that children with imaginary companions might be superior in intelligence, it is not true that all intelligent children create them.
A long-time popular misconception is that most children dismiss or forget the imaginary friend once they begin school and acquire real friends. According to one study, by the age of seven, sixty-five percent of children report that they have had an imaginary companion at some point in their lives. Some psychologists have suggested that children simply retain but stop speaking about imaginary friends, due to adult expectations and peer pressure. Still, some children report creating or maintaining imaginary friends as pre-teens or teenagers. Few adults report having imaginary friends. Pediatrician Benjamin Spock believed that imaginary friends past age four indicated that something was "lacking" in the child or his environment. Some child development professionals still believe that the presence of imaginary friends past early childhood signals a serious psychiatric disorder. Others disagree, saying that imaginary friends are common among school-age children and are part of normal social-cognitive development.
Read more about this topic: Imaginary Friend
Famous quotes containing the word studies:
“The conduct of a man, who studies philosophy in this careless manner, is more truly sceptical than that of any one, who feeling in himself an inclination to it, is yet so over-whelm’d with doubts and scruples, as totally to reject it. A true sceptic will be diffident of his philosophical doubts, as well as of his philosophical conviction; and will never refuse any innocent satisfaction, which offers itself, upon account of either of them.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“What an admirable training is science for the more active warfare of life! Indeed, the unchallenged bravery which these studies imply, is far more impressive than the trumpeted valor of the warrior.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“His life itself passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for the naturalist. The latter raises the moss and bark gently with his knife in search of insects; the former lays open logs to their core with his axe, and moss and bark fly far and wide. He gets his living by barking trees. Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)