[url]SFF Net
THIS is an interesting anacdote about my
favorite lizard monster. Disturbing too. 
What are your
thoughts?
SOMEBODY besides me has seen the
Imaginary Friend Randall in āFosterās Home For Imaginary Friendsā! There IS one, you know, and if you
look carefully in the episode, āPartying Is Such Sweet Soireeā, you can find him-eight limbs, purple
scales, long tail-whole nine yards!
Seriously, though, itās clear that this kid, āAranā, is
like 83% of the kids on the planet who have an imaginary friend(the non-Craig McCracken type)by the time they are
seven years old. If youāre gonna have an imaginary friend, why NOT Randall?
pitbulllady
If the
kid has a disorder AND a vivid imagination, it would make sense for him to think Randallās realā¦ after all,
the film is three dimintional 
What disturbs me is the fact that he and āRandallā seem to
quarell more then playā¦
Iām no child psycholigist, but maybe he wanted to work out some frustrations,
so he vented them through a VERY frustrated character. I hope thatās the case! Iād hate for the kid to be
genuinly afraid of him! ā biased fan. I want no one to fear zeā Randall 
, weather or not itās part of
his job LMAO!
Personally, I think he kid is going to be fine. I just
get the feeling that this isnāt something serious. Heās a kid, and even with a ācondition,ā he does
appear to distinguish fantasy & real life now and again (video games) . . . so his imagination is probably on
hyperdrive, and I see nothing wrong with that . . . yet.
It IS, as I said, quite
normal for a seven-year-old to have an imaginary friend. It is also quite normal for children to blame bad
things that happen to them, or bad things that THEY DO, on their imaginary friends. The kid was sharp enough to
figure out that Randall would be the perfect imaginary friend, since Randall can ALREADY make himself
āinvisableā, therefore the kid would already have an answer ready for when an adult says something
like, ābut I didnāt SEE Randall do anythingā. The kid can just say that Randall is
ācamoflagedā so thatās why they canāt see him, and this way the kid doesnāt even have to deviate
from ācanonā. Thatās different from him totally making up an imaginary friend from scratch, and then
having to come up with reasoning why no one else can see this imaginary friend. Itās easier to come up with an
imaginary friend based on someone elseās design that he sees in a movie or on tv, just like when Wilt explained
the presence of what appeared to be Mojo Jojo at Fosterās, and like he said, "what are you gonna
do?"
pitbulllady
I see this as
pretty normal. Heck, I was around 14-15 when Monsters, Inc. came out and I had a fun time thinking the characters
were realā¦ kind of a different situation, but whatever. Itās all a matter of whether the kid thinks Randallās
real or not, but the father mentioned he knows that video games arenāt real, so Iād assume heās playing
around. Letās just hope he doesnāt hurt himself or anybody else with his āimaginary enemyā.
Yeah this is rather normal. I had an imaginary friend when
I was little but mine wasā¦ rather nicer. I think who your imaginary friend is somewhat reflects the person and
in this caseā¦ I think the kid feels somewhat insecure to have a āscaryā one.
Iām surprised nobody has pointed out so far that the kid
in question is autistic. Dash would be a much better source on autism, but that just might have something to do
with itā¦
I donāt think I ever had any imaginary friend. I pretended that stuffed animals were real and
all that, but I never actually thought for a second that they really were or anything.
Heās autistic?
Yeah - being that the kid is autistic Iād be greatful that heās showing any imagination at all. The fact is
that with autistic children they often canāt explain and rationalize things and go into sensory overload. If
thereās an inability to communicate (as it sounds is probly the case here) then they will use any event that is
on Parr with what theyāre feeling then to express it.
For example - My brother (also autistic) when
angered to a certain poibnt will start quoting Mr. Huff from The Incredibles. He taps his foot and points
violently screaming āIām not happy insert name, not happy at all!ā and if it elevates heāll go
even further with āStop right now, or youāre fired!ā
Now my brother has an almost savant (-3pts
sp) level memory especially when it comes to TV and movies. Couple that with the fact that he watches them
almost non-stop repeating the same scene over and over sometime (occasionally up to 43 times) then you can see
how he would nail the scene right on. Iād be willing to bet that this child is reciting things similar to
scenes from the movie (if someone very familiar with the movie sat down with him and actually observed this I bet
they could pick out which) and the child is merely using these scenes to express himself the only way he knows
how. The parents might actually could learn something from this about how their kid feels when these episodes
occur and the fact that he mentions Randall IMO likely means not that he thinks Randall is there but that he
feels like another character (perhaps Mike or Sully) that is being affected by Randall. This could be doubly the
case if the kid has an aptitude for combining reality and fiction like my brother has for memory.
"Could be bad in that he may really believe Randall is real because TV
appears real to him, and his autism wonāt let him realize itās only
pretend."
It would appear so.
Yeah, it sounds like the autism is definitely playing a
part in all of this, though at the same time, it is natural for children to have imaginary friends.
Well in some terms Randall is real.
But anyway.
Most young kids tend to blame incidents on someone else. Human nature. I briefly viewed the paragraphsā¦unsure
if this kid has any sibilings, but either way, blaming someone who, seemingly, is able to be invisible is better
than getting in trouble.
Ahahahhah!! Even I like to blame people that arenāt around if I spill something or
knock something overā¦ 
And I usually blame my sister (who is off at college) or my dad (who is usually
not home)ā¦ hehehehā¦
Blame the cat 
I always blame the gerbils, personally. Rotten little buggersā¦
That sounds exactly on the nail. I too
have a lot of experience with Autismā¦mainly because I have Aspergerās Syndrome.
It seems like Aran is
using Randall as a way of expressing his anxieties. He could be using parts of the movie which he associates with
anger, frustration and anxiety and quoting/re-enacting them to express his own feelings. Other children with
Autism do similar things.
When understanding Autism, you have to meet them halfway. You have to enter
their world and see things from their perspective, because forcing your own on them can be frightening. Speaking
to them on their level allows you to gradually (a key word with Autism. NEVER make cold-turkey changes unless you
absolutely have to) draw them out onto a level where they can communicate with other people.
Youād know better than any of us then. Though Iāll be honest you do very
well. Usually I an pick up on that in a personās writing style even but I did not see it in you.
Then again in some cases Randall is considered an invisible friend.
If I recall
once, I think Pitbulllady stated a long time ago to me, that a teacher once made a cut-out of Randall for her
class, and, and this is a little shaky remember, whenever one of her kids (young kids, I think preschoolers or at
least elementary) did something bad (I think), they would write on a piece of paper of what they think of their
actions and place it in a bag in front of the cut-out as if they were talking to Randall about their
problems.
Oh yeah, I remember that! I wasnāt a member
of the old board, but I still visited after the place went to hell (unfourtunateā¦ stupid hackers!).