One in five young children have imaginary friends

I still use imaginary friends to move through problems , my son has 'em too . He is gifted also . Not so different than when people pray or talk to god . Socrates heard voices . As long as you get good advice from it , why worry ? You know they are imaginary .

My imaginary friends' name was Molly. Imaginary friends show the childs ability to creatively problem solve. Ages 1 to 6 are the developmental years, where a child takes in a remarkable amount of information. Most imaginary friends are manifested usually within these age perimeters. It is obivously is a means of working through exterior information and stimuli, it's not too different then roll playing with another child or adult.

I am an only child and I had imaginary siblings as a young thing. Hah. Lasted until about 5th grade, which may be TOO long.

Imaginary friends help children develop social skills for later on. I had a couple when I was younger and turned out fine.

I'm pretty impressed with the level of imagination these days, given the increased level of electronic stimuli.
I think it's important for children to use their imaginations a LOT, as it exercises your brain, and forces you to think on-the-ball, and those are skills we could all use a little more of. Also, what's the fun in the world if you can't spend time creating your own?

its good if a child has an imaginary friend it will help them in long run when they have real friends for examples when disagreements come up. Ive been told i used to have fights with my own pretend friend and didnt talk to her for a week. I dont remember her name simply because it changed every week. the point is when the child really does have a problem it will get used to resolving them faster and better then children who dont have one.

Wow, that is pretty scary dude! What is up with the kids of today?

RT
http://www.privacy-center.pro.tc

I don't know if it's weird or not, but after having problems with my girlfriend, I have got her in my imagination.

It does feel good to talk to her, even knowing that all this is just in my imagination.

This is interesting. My daughter(at 3 years old) had a friend, Mr. Rabbit and she would often talk to him while I was in the room. She would say, "look Dad Mr. Rabbit is here". It actually gave me the creeps at times. I suspect that these "friends" are visualized by children as a necessary function of a developing brain. My daughter was in gifted classes and graduated as Validictorian and outstanding student of her class. So Mr. Rabbit did not seem to cause any mental or emotional problems. Personally, I am glad he no longer visits.

MAYBE THEY SEE DEAD PEOPLE. ITS A THEORY.

We are great friends with Mcwally....

I stayed away from those

Anyway we can find out what kind of parents these kids have??

I had imaginary friends when I was a kid and we would talk (me and my imaginary friends) yet I knew they were imaginary. Interesting memory.

I don't think I had any imaginary friends, but I remembered just playing with any few random dolls and make-believe games as I move them around. I gave them dialogues too! My younger brother played like this as well.

Big Boy, little sister and little brother where mine. They were a lot more fun, big boy liked to jump off the roof.

Its totally healthy for young children to have imaginary friends.

Tony says.......REDRUM...REDRUM...

I've been told I had one, a girl that i talked about like she was my age, when I was four and five. I obviously can't remember that far back very clearly, but I'm in college and fairly successful at it so it doesn't seem to have impeded my development. I think it's perfectly normal and to be expected. Children haven't yet learned to reign in their creative imagination.

I had them too and then I forgot about them while I got busy being an adult. At age 55 I have about six different personalities so I don't need imaginary friends.

My son had an imaginary friend when he was little. All my personalities agree that its perfectly normal.

When I was a kid,... I had a mini ALF that sat in my hand, ate dry Cream-of-Wheat and hated classic rock. Kinda weird, huh? But it's not like it influenced my development - except for my craziness.

My son didn't have just one imaginary friend, he had a whole 'gang' of them. The main one was named Carge, and the rest were 'his guys'. He would talk to himself and I'd ask what he was doing, he'd say, "I'm playing with Carge and my guys." I think it's adorable, he had his own group of friends for support. He's 7 now, doesn't really remember Carge or 'his guys'. He's got lots of friends and is doing wonderful, no problems at all. He still enjoys creative play, mostly with Star Wars and army guys.

Lol, good one :)

i had one... you know i miss it...

you know the sad part, i can not even remember when i miss placed one of the most important parts of my childhood... but man did it ever get me in alot of trouble... err... it was good to blame for the trouble i got into?

if i ever have kids i will encourage them to keep their friend as long as possible..

i keep encouraging my brothers kids much to his wifes annoyance... which makes me smile all that much more...

I had an imaginary friend, but I never addressed him directly, not even in private. It was just something I would do when I'd play with friends to make it more interesting.

I had an imaginary friend called "Station Master." I believe he may have been an older black man and a train engineer. I’m not sure what consequence this may have had on my linguistic development, but it sure made for interesting dinner conversation, or so I’ve been told.

wrong again

It has been theorized that children with imaginary companions may develop language skills and retain knowledge faster than children without them. This may be due to the fact that these children get more linguistic practice while carrying out "conversations" with their imaginary friends than their peers do.

27, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050308101309.htm

There are also other examples where imaginary companions are thought to be beneficial.

3 out of 4 American adults have an imaginary friend called Jesus.

I wonder if there's any connection.

ah....I still have them....:)

I honestly dont remember if I had any imaginary friends.