Awareness of non-realities

Our capacity for fantasy has often been touted as one of the unique attributes that defines us as human. As early as 18 months many human children have entered the realm of fantasy through their engagement in pretend play. Although we are not certain of this, even younger infants may enter this realm via their dreams. And certainly way into old age we enjoy reading novels, going to plays, and engaging in elaborate day-dreams. The question addressed in this chapter is the nature of our conscious understanding of this fantastical realm, in particular the understanding that young preschool-age children display. The understanding of this age group is the focus, because many believe that at this age children begin to consider the fantastical and to make a conscious division of their world into real and not-real, a distinction that is basic to and deeply entrenched in our adult thinking.

There are many levels of reality and many varieties of non-realities. As Austin (1962, p. 67) put it, “That may not be real duck because it is a decoy, or a toy duck, or a species of goose closely resembling a duck, or because I am having a hallucination.” In previous work (Woolley & Wellman, 1990) I have investigated the extent to which children talk about the many levels of reality in their everyday conversation.