Children With Autism Are Able to Create Imaginary Friends

Summary: A new study reveals, contrary to popular belief, children with ASD are able to create imaginary companions. Imaginary friends, researchers argue, are an important feature in a child’s emotional development.

Source: University of Huddersfield.

Playing with an imaginary companion (IC) helps children learn essential social skills such as empathy with other people. It is often believed that autistic youngsters are incapable of creating pretend play pals – a further hindrance to their development of emotional understanding.

But now a project headed by a University of Huddersfield researcher confirms that children diagnosed with autism are able to create and play with ICs. Further research is to be conducted and could eventually help to develop new therapies.

The current findings – based on data collected in the USA and the UK – are reported in a new article for which the lead author is Dr Paige Davis, who lectures in psychology at the University of Huddersfield. Imaginary companions are one of her key specialities.

The research described in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders by Dr Davis and her three co-authors is based on evidence gathered from 215 questionnaires completed by approximately equal numbers of parents of children with typical development (TD) and of children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

The findings do indicate that fewer children with ASD create an imaginary companion – 16.2 per cent as opposed to 42 per cent of TD youngsters. Also children with autism began playing with their ICs at a significantly later age and were proportionately more likely to play with a “personified object” such as a stuffed toy or doll.

But the argument of the new article from Dr Davis is that while there is a quantitative difference between the developments of ICs between the two categories of children, there is no difference in the quality of the play.

The article includes examples of some of the imaginary companions created by children with autism whose parents took part in the project. They include Ghosty Bubble, an invisible bubble person who slept on a bubble bed next to the child; Mikey, an invisible Ninja who lived in a sewer; and Pretend Ada, an invisible version of a real school pal who played with the child when she needed a friend.

“The finding that children diagnosed with ASD even spontaneously create such imaginary companions refutes existing beliefs that they are not imagining in the same way as typically developing children,” said Dr Davis.

“Imaginary companions are special because they are social in nature and children with autism have issues with social development and communication. So if you are actually creating a mind for an imaginary person you are involving yourself in a range of social activities that the autism diagnosis itself would say you couldn’t do.”

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But the argument of the new article from Dr Davis is that while there is a quantitative difference between the developments of ICs between the two categories of children, there is no difference in the quality of the play. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

Dr Davis argues that if children with ASD are showing the same positive social developments as TD youngsters from the creation of ICs, then that could have implications for future intervention and lead to new therapies based on the imagination.

Her collaborators on the research and co-authors of the article were Elizabeth Meins of the University of York, Haley Simon of Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA, and Diana Robins of the AJ Drexel Autism Institute in Philadelphia. The article – titled Imaginary Companions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder – describes the research methodology and the findings in detail.

Now there are plans for further research into the benefits of imaginary companions to typically developing children and whether the same applies to autistic youngsters.

The research could eventually help to develop new therapies.

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Jayne Amos – University of Huddersfield
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access research for “Imaginary Companions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder” by Paige E. Davis, Haley Simon, Elizabeth Meins, and Diana L. Robinsin Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder. Published March 21 2018.
doi:10.1007/s10803-018-3540-y

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]University of Huddersfield “Children With Autism Are Able to Create Imaginary Friends.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 2 May 2018.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/autism-imaginary-friends-8940/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]University of Huddersfield (2018, May 2). Children With Autism Are Able to Create Imaginary Friends. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved May 2, 2018 from https://neurosciencenews.com/autism-imaginary-friends-8940/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]University of Huddersfield “Children With Autism Are Able to Create Imaginary Friends.” https://neurosciencenews.com/autism-imaginary-friends-8940/ (accessed May 2, 2018).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Imaginary Companions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

One of the deficits observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is impaired imaginative play. One form of imaginative play common in many typically developing (TD) children is having an imaginary companion (IC). The occurrence of ICs has not been investigated extensively in children with ASD. We examined differences in parent report of IC between TD and ASD populations in 215 (111 with ASD) gender-matched children aged between 2 and 8 years. Findings indicate that significantly fewer children with ASD created ICs, although there were many between-group similarities in IC forms and functions. Results are discussed in terms of qualitative differences in play, social attributions, and how children with ASD conceptualize their ICs’ minds.

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