Imaginary friends...

kingfisherblue

My son is eleven and has learning difficulties - he still has imaginary friends. I'm delighted by the comment that pandora205 made, about it being 'healthy intellectual ability', as although my son will always have learning difficulties, he is doing quite well in terms of reading, writing and sums. He has an imagination, which we were told children with Down's syndrome would never have.

My other son, who does not have any learning difficulties, also had imaginary friends when he was younger. He has outgrown them now, but his teacher tells me that he has a wonderful imagination and an ability to write interesting and exciting stories - and his marks bear this out.

McKneff

I remember it wel, my son is now 41, he had an imaginary friend when he was little and it was quite good fun for me too. It appeared one day out of the blue and was called diddy. He was around for a few weeks and i asked my son to draw him, know what, it was a blumming kangaroo. .................
Yes, mummy of course its a kangaroo, how could you not know...............

I thought i was sharing my house with a little boy or girl.

slightlyconfused1

Hi

My daughter, at age 4, used to have pretend dogs (Heaven and Fido) and would take them for a walk. It was funny when you were walking along having a normal conversation in the park, she walking with her arms outstretched holding the leads, and she would suddenly "get pulled away" shouting "heaven, fido stop". People thought we were mad but I loved it.

She always called them her pretend dogs. She also had a pretend older brother, a bit strange really as she has three brothers and always wanted a sister.

She grew out of it and sometime I quite miss it all.

artybear

Hi

I can still remember my imaginary friend-his name was Jolly and he had to do everything I did. My mum set the table for him/bathed him/took him to play school with me. It was just fun and kept me amused for hours!!

xxxxxxxxxxxx

pandora205

kingfisherblue wrote: »

My son is eleven and has learning difficulties - he still has imaginary friends. I'm delighted by the comment that pandora205 made, about it being 'healthy intellectual ability', as although my son will always have learning difficulties, he is doing quite well in terms of reading, writing and sums. He has an imagination, which we were told children with Down's syndrome would never have.

My other son, who does not have any learning difficulties, also had imaginary friends when he was younger. He has outgrown them now, but his teacher tells me that he has a wonderful imagination and an ability to write interesting and exciting stories - and his marks bear this out.

Hi kingfisherblue.

I'm pleased my comment helped - I'm an educational psychologist so hope this is reassuring. It's a very good sign if your lad has imaginary friends as it really do show moving away from the 'concrete' stage of only understanding the here and now. Being able to think about what might happen and pretend is an essential part of being able to plan and solve problems (imagining what will happen if x happens....)

Don't underestimate your son... Children are all different and the professionals don't have all the answers!

Ickle-toots

Hi

My now 7yr old DD had when about 3/4 had a 'Granny' who lived in France & also her 2 older brothers 'Suchet' & 'Peter' ( she's an only child ) - she completely invented whole stories of what they did & I once asked her what her 'Granny's' name was & she said Annie ( my late Nan's name which I'd never mentioned to her) & then said "Mum, when you were a baby I used to rock you to sleep" - I found that really freaky !!

It all just seemed to stop one day & she never mentions it/them anymore but she does have a very vivid imagination when writing stories !

meece

Hi, I had a six foot yellow gorilla as my imaginary friend, called Gorilla (imagination obviously had some limits!). My mum used to have to set a place at mealtimes etc...My Uncle took me to see Guy the gorilla at London Zoo- never saw my imaginary friend after that day!:o

LilacPixie

My DD has a friend called Jack, he is in the circus (which is actually grannys kitchen) and does cart wheels and tumbles and even walks on a tightrope. Jack goes to a big boys school beside her nursery but is always last in the car in the morning.

She also speaks of/to peope with names the same as dead reletives which freaks my husband out alot

Morganarla

I remember having an imaginary friend called Herry... Was a little girl in my mind but I can't remember anything besides that!

3onitsway

Ickle-toots wrote: »

Hi

My now 7yr old DD had when about 3/4 had a 'Granny' who lived in France & also her 2 older brothers 'Suchet' & 'Peter' ( she's an only child ) - she completely invented whole stories of what they did & I once asked her what her 'Granny's' name was & she said Annie ( my late Nan's name which I'd never mentioned to her) & then said "Mum, when you were a baby I used to rock you to sleep" - I found that really freaky !!

It all just seemed to stop one day & she never mentions it/them anymore but she does have a very vivid imagination when writing stories !

My DD had Min & Mog and Pin & Pog who lived in the post box down the road. Every time we walked past we had to 'post' them a chocolate button/smartie/jam sandwich (poor postman!:rotfl:). They disappeared by the time she was 5.

The more worrying thing was when she was three and we were going on the Mersey Ferry for the first time. I said 'Wow, you've never been on a big boat before', she said, 'Don't be silly Mummy, I went on the big boat that sank', 'Oh no, that wasn't with you, that was with my other mummy, the one before I had you!' :eek: