Ask the expert

Jennie Lindon
Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Child psychologist Jennie Lindon answers your letters about child behaviour. Q. We have two children (both four-year-olds) currently in our nursery who each have an imaginary friend. One child just uses her friend in her pretend play: chatting and involving the friend in domestic role play in the home corner. We realise that many young children have an imaginary friend, so we do not see this automatically as a problem. However, the second child really seems to need his 'friend' to speak up for him. His father is getting worried that his son can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.