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7year old niece's imaginary friends

By Reginita3 , Jul 22 2011

my 7 year old niece has imaginary friends. She only developed this within the past month. There are 4 of them and they have names. My sister thinks this is abnormal and wants to take her to a child psychologist and has even said this in front of my niece!! She has always had a attention problem and often stares out into space and my sister calls her La La, as in La La Land. I think it is demeaning and have told her so. I just think my niece has a very vivid imagination and lives in her head most of the time.
I also think this is a coping mechanism because there is always a lot of turmoil in my sister's family. Her husband's brother committed suicide not too long ago and that devastated the kids, and they were recently pulled out of school to be home schooled.
I give my niece a lot of time and attention. She also has a stuttering problem which worries me. What do I do other than just to be supportive of my niece and shield her from her mom's criticism's.???