THE BOY HAS AN IMAGINARY FRIEND

Sometimes parents are worried because their son or daughter talks, laughs and plays with a being that is not real. This means that the boy has an imaginary friend, and it is very normal among the little ones.

It is known as stage of magical thinking (a very poetic name) in which the child creates his little fantasy world. It usually occurs in children from two years and disappears around six or seven years, age at which they begin to differentiate the boundaries between the real world and the imaginary.

The imaginary friend

The imaginary friend can have a name and personality, and even sleep with the child and take a place at the family table.

The child ensures that his imaginary friend exists "for real" and makes it part of your life as if he were a brother or a friend more. It can accompany you for days, months or maybe years.

It is a more frequent behavior in only children, children with a wide age difference with their older siblings, or overly lonely children. The imaginary friend comes to fill the loneliness they feel for spending most of their time among adults, without children around them.

As much as the parents play with the child, he feels the need to relate to their peers. And by not having them "at hand" they invent an imaginary friend, an inseparable colleague who is always there when he needs it.

An emotional escape route

The child projects in his imaginary friend what he feels at that stage of his life, share and express feelings, both positive and negative. He participates in his emotions, his joys and his fears and accompanies him at times that can cause some anxiety in the child such as changing schools, moving or separating parents.

It represents a ground wire, an escape route through which the girl channels her worries, often reducing stress and anxiety.

How to react if the child has an imaginary friend

Parents may be disoriented by noticing that their child has an imaginary friend who is too "real." But for the child his friend really exists and it can be disappointing that the parents do not believe in him.

The best is act naturally and "go with the flow" accepting his imaginary friend.

When to worry

That the child has an imaginary friend is absolutely normalHowever, we must be alert to certain behaviors or worrisome circumstances to which the child may be exposed.

You have to watch the child's reactions and how that being created by his imagination makes him feel. For example, if it arouses aggressive or violent reactions.

It is also worrying if the child it is completely isolated from its real surroundings to interact only with your imaginary friend, neglecting daily activities or refusing to be with other children or adults.

Also, we must rule out that the child suffers some type of hallucination, and seek professional help if after six or seven years, when they begin to develop a certain logic, the relationship with his imaginary friend continues.

Definitely, the existence of an imaginary friend in childhood It is normal. It is believed that between 12 and 30 percent of children have had one at some time during their childhood.

Children can be extremely imaginative. We must bear in mind that childhood is a magical period in which reality coexists with fantasy.