Watch this with the music off the visuals are good if a little sped up but the noise is awful. The light seems to fade at the right rate to work through it all.
Taken from BBC news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9359000/9359360.stm
This was an interesting article with a couple of key paragraphs. Children benefit from having pretend friends and some rely heavily on this to deal with trauma or stress.
Like other research, imaginary friends which were based on a special toy were included. In a study in the United Kingdom, 1,800 children completed a questionnaire about imaginary friends. Forty six per cent of them reported past or current imaginary friends, including nine per cent of 12-year-olds.
It is interesting to look at this from the perspective of those who believe a child should not enjoy these flights of fancy and that a child should learn a special toy is not important. We all have things that are important to us. But in the case of a child this may be fundamentally balled up into their entire coping strategy.
Some children will talk to their friend about the problem, others will play with their imaginary friend, which takes their mind off the problem and the unhappy feelings disappear. We also know that some children who have endured traumatic life events may also draw on their imaginary companions for support.
We should see these as a natural way for a child to learn to cope with stress – talking about it. Later in life perhaps these skills become lost in the blinkered assumptions we live with? As a child in a home without friends on hand their own age to discuss things with (as twins might have), this coping mechanism may be vital to their developing mental health. Teens integrate and chat in our connected world with other teens, younger children tend not to say they want to call a friend if they have had a stressful time.
Are adults all good at coping with stress? Can anyone remember being a child and having less stress? Looking back I went through bits of stress as a child but I dont remember it as traumatic the way I remember adult experiences. – Did I have an imaginery friend, or perhaps several?
The fact that I cannot remember clearly may be another reason adults tend to view imaginary friends as frivolous or pointless. We may not believe we were like that.
This was an interesting clip. A little different to the documentary I recently saw that implied all gaming was addictive and bad………… Food for thought.
There are a few places that do a better service than simply kennels and this is the most interesting I have seen. The owner is committed to a high level of service as she will only have one dog or family of dogs at a time. They get to live with the family and watch TV with the family. Truly home from home…….
The owner being married to me does constitute some bias but by now you are aware this is minimal