The Influences Of Imaginary Companion On5to6Years Old Children’s Developments Of Theory Of Mind And Peer Acceptance

The research processes in this study were including three main methods.Firstly,we used the method called "Double Interview Process" to determine how many5-6years old children have imaginary companions.And then we used the classical false belief tasks to measure the developmental situations of5-6years old children’s theory of mind.Finally we used the peer nomination to the peer relationship of5-6years old children.The aims of my study were to investigate the influences of imaginary companions on the development of5-6years old children’s theory of mind and peer relationship.The conclusion are as followed:1. As the main form of the preschool children’s pretend play,imaginary companion was really common among5-6years old children,accounting for30.7%of the total.It is more common among the girls.2. As for the specific forms of the imaginary companion,the main form of5-6years old children’s imaginary companions was personified object.Only a few children had fantasy beings.3. As for the relationship between the pretend play and the imaginary companion,there was a really close relationship between the pretend play and the imaginary companion.More than half of the children involved in the pretend had one more imaginary companions.4. As for the influences of imaginary companions on the theory of mind development of5-6years old children, the influences of imaginary companions was obvious and the children with imaginary companions got higher scores than the children without imaginary companions in all the the classical false belief tasks.5. As for the influences of imaginary companions on the peer relationship of5-6years old children, the children with imaginary companions were categorized into the popular group. The children with imaginary companions got higher scores in the positive nomination scores and the social chosen scores than the rest.