Monday Teeny Poll
By Glinda 
Calvin and Hobbes, the perfect pair! If you are not familiar with the comic strip from Bill Watterson, do yourself a big favor and click on the picture.
Some studies have shown that children who have imaginary friends have better verbal and socialization skills than their peers. I’m not absolutely sure about that, but it is an interesting concept. Although I think they might reconsider if they were to hear my son boss his “crew” (as in pirate, not taggging) around. It’s a wonder those guys haven’t staged a mutiny by now.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
My 9 y.o. daughter, who never had imaginary friends and refused to believe in Santa, has always had amazing verbal/language skillz so I’m not sure that having imaginary friends is related to that skill set.
My son, on the other hand, has had several imaginary pals, and while his verbal/social skillz are also strong for his age, I think his sister still tops him in that category. I associate the imaginary friend thing with–not surprisingly–a love of imagination and more artistic and sensory endeavors. My son loves imaginary play, books about the fantastic, emotional songs, etc. My daughter, not so much. She can’t see the appeal of Harry Potter, but give her somebody’s biography or the Guinnes Book of World Records and she’s all over them like a hot rash.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I would hold conversations with make-believe people, usually characters from my favorite books, but I never had one particular friend. I didn’t believe that my conversational partners were real, nor did I discuss the dialogues with anyone else.
October 29th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I had no particular imaginary friend, but I did have an imaginary pirate crew and ship, imaginary steam locomotive, and imaginary stable full of The Black Stallion’s progeny. And when my real friends weren’t around, I would imagine them there anyway.
And just look how I turned out!
Oh.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Mine were Sally and Colby (yes, like the cheese) and their giant invisible dog Ghosbros.