I guess I had always assumed that all children had make believe friends and created fantasy games. During my research on early giftedness, I discovered that it is something that gifted children are more prone to do, but I guess I still didn't think it was odd. Daniel probably started his make belive play around the age of 2. So, after 2 years of this, it's pretty common place for me - I guess I don't notice it too much. One of his favorite games is to play make believe sports, especially football. He names all of the characters and creates elaborate plays. Of course, he is always the quarterback, but he doesn't really know the different positions, he just likes to throw the ball.
We were at the doctor's office waiting for an appointment, and Daniel decided to pass the time with a rousing game of imaginary football. I wasn't paying much attention to him - he was being quiet and not terroizing the fish in the office aquarium. The lady next to me was just amazed and kept telling me how impressed she was. Then she turned to another woman and pointed out Daniel's game. Of course, he stopped when he got attention. But it made me wonder, why people are so amazed when a child uses his imagination. That should be part of childhood. Instead of stressing over early literacy and how much we can accelerate learning, we should be encouraging creativity and imagination. We have so many years to be serious, we should let our children have fun while they can. After all, there are certain things you can only get away with in childhood - and imaginary football in the doctor's office is definitely one of them!
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Your comment about children using their imaginations made me think of a teaching moment from a few years ago. I teach multi-handicapped children, on the other end of the spectrum from Daniel. Every once in a while I give a homework assignment to play a game with their parents and then share with the class. I gave this assignment near Christmas one year. One girl came in and said she had baked Christmas cookies with her Mom. Another student said he played 20 questions with his Dad. Another boy played Uno. Another boy said he had gone to his sister's school Christmas program. We talked about how much fun the kids had. Then Tyler said, "I couldn't do the assignment and here's a note from Mom." The note said, "Tyler couldn't play a game because our computer is broken." That comment will stay with me for a long time. Enjoy your wonderful Daniel and his great imagination. Sounds like you have some great years ahead!
I absolutely agree with you when you stated, "we should be encouraging creativity and imagination." We place so much emphasis these days on core academics with young children that we forget how they best learn, through play. My favorite quote is by Albert Einstein. He said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I think that we as both educators and parents, should embrace this more often. We must remember that children are learning when they use their imagination. It is a key stage in their development.
I'm so glad to hear that you as a parent have embraced your son's imagination. It will truly benefit him in the end!
I have two gifted granddaughters. What a struggle we have with their teachers. Full time programs seem to think that they need to push them as fast as they can into higher grade levels and part time programs ignore them as long as they are working higher than normal. I have seen the glow of learning leaving them both. We have another parent/family conference on Monday because the 'teacher has both the gifted students and the ESE students and she doesn't have the time to inform my daughter about how her daughter is doing due to the bad behavior with some of the students". I work with them because my daughter has an MS type of disease. It is very frustrating.
They used to have fantasies that they were different types of animals or characters and they would not leave their 'character' all day. The younger one has problems with fire drills, due to the noise level and the teacher doesn't seem to get it. She got in trouble one time for completing her work and then drawing cartoons along the borders to represent what they were learning. We were told she 'daydreams' and 'fantasizes' too much.
They make connections that I never thought.
The school loves them because they raise the FCAT scores for the school but don't seem to worry about stimulating their minds.
I'm a professor and my sister and son are teachers in the public school. However, what I see is gifted children are left to flounder or are pushed so hard they become anxious.
Good luck to your son.
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