Re: behavior - very long -

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

If you remember I had posted a while ago about Amita's imaginary

friends and games. Yes, it is all very real to her and she would

throw a tantrum if we interupted or made her do something else. I

got very worried some months ago and sat her down and had a serious

talk with her. I just told her that .. " Amita, This a is a pretend

game. This is ur pretend friend. I know that u like to play with

them but I can't see them or hear them because they are not really

here.. are they? I could see that she did not want to acknowledge

that fact but eventually she did. She now says that " pretend " Uniqua

etc have come over for whatever. I feel better because if I ask her

that is that real or are u just saying something that's pretend

she's able to answer accurately. She is lonely (only child, few

friends)so I don't want her to lose that imaginary play completely.

She still does get mad at times if I interupt her play time but

mostly if I ask her who's there she says who it is? I just give her

a time " u got 5 more minutes to finish up " .

I guess what I have been rambling about and what Tim has said pretty

concisely is that within limits imaginary play is OK and so long as

they are able to distinguish reality from imaginary its fine. But

she should know that you set the limits for that.

Deepta

PS Amita still thinks that all the cartoons(Backyardigans) on TV are

real. I have started to kind of make a joke with her saying " have u

ever heard of a talking penguin " ? Hopefully she'll get the point.

[Guest guest]

Deepta-

I guess I need to sit her down and set limits and stick to them even if she

resists at first. She knows the difference. If I ask her, " Ok - is this

real or pretend? " she can accurately tell me which it is. So she knows that

she's pretending. My question is if it's something she can stop or if it's

like other obsessions where she can't let go of it even if she knows it's

pretend and that I'm telling her to stop. I know she cognitively gets it.

I just don't know if it's within her actual control.

Michele W

_____

From: CHARGE [mailto:CHARGE ] On Behalf Of

deepta_69

Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 9:04 AM

To: CHARGE

Subject: Re: behavior - very long -

Hi ,

If you remember I had posted a while ago about Amita's imaginary

friends and games. Yes, it is all very real to her and she would

throw a tantrum if we interupted or made her do something else. I

got very worried some months ago and sat her down and had a serious

talk with her. I just told her that .. " Amita, This a is a pretend

game. This is ur pretend friend. I know that u like to play with

them but I can't see them or hear them because they are not really

here.. are they? I could see that she did not want to acknowledge

that fact but eventually she did. She now says that " pretend " Uniqua

etc have come over for whatever. I feel better because if I ask her

that is that real or are u just saying something that's pretend

she's able to answer accurately. She is lonely (only child, few

friends)so I don't want her to lose that imaginary play completely.

She still does get mad at times if I interupt her play time but

mostly if I ask her who's there she says who it is? I just give her

a time " u got 5 more minutes to finish up " .

I guess what I have been rambling about and what Tim has said pretty

concisely is that within limits imaginary play is OK and so long as

they are able to distinguish reality from imaginary its fine. But

she should know that you set the limits for that.

Deepta

PS Amita still thinks that all the cartoons(Backyardigans) on TV are

real. I have started to kind of make a joke with her saying " have u