I would like to live over the rainbow: Dreams of young children

Abstract

Dreams are an indicator of the extent of imagination. Young children have simple, fabulous and happy dreams. This study tries to determine the dreams of young children. For this purpose, drawings and narrations of 483 children aged between 3–4 and 5 years attending the kindergartens and pre-school classes in a city and district in the southwestern Turkey concerning their dreams were examined. In the study, Clark’s Drawing Abilities Test was used and the drawings were classified according to their subject areas. At the end of the study, it was determined that young children made drawings reflecting the culture in their dreams, and their dreams varied according to their age, gender and residence location. Dreaming is a multi-directional cognitive process that is affected by factors like culture, age, gender and residence location.

Keywords

dreams fairy tales fantasy world imagination young children

Young children often dream. Young children’s dreams are less restricted with reality and different than adults. They can imagine impossible things. This study aims to determine the dreams of young children. The dreams of young children allow us to know whether their experiences are rich or limited. Children with different experiences can imagine different things.

Literature review

Dream means having or expressing a desire or hope for something to happen. Changes in executive skills have been associated with dreaming. Productivity, visual planning and executive skills are effective on producing the new possible changes of an object, which is required for dreaming (Craig and Baron-Cohen, 1999; Low et al., 2009). According to this information, dreaming is not only emotion and affectivity ability but also a cognitive ability. The area of interest in this study has been the cognitive aspect of dreaming.

Studies on the dreams of typical children have been encountered mainly in older age groups. In the study conducted by Bland (2012) with children in the age range of 9–11 years concerning ideal school drawings and stories of these drawings, it was determined that children’s drawings reflected their age, gender, past and culture. Chen (1998) compared American students and Taiwanese students in the fantasy world drawings of sixth- and eighth-grade students. While the most popular subject for American students was ‘dreamland’ or ‘fairy tales’, the most popular subject for Taiwanese students was people. On the other hand, there is a limited number of studies on the dreams of young children. In their study, based on the narratives of six children aged 5 years, Ahn and Filipenko (2007) determined that the children told not only their existing experiences but also the experiences that they wished would exist. It was determined that children also included school, family and friend relationships in their narratives. This study was limited only with children’s narratives. Hawkins (2002) paired kindergarten children with their elder siblings, sent draft books to their houses and examined their drawings. It was determined that children’s imagination arose from their interactions with other people around them.

Young children like drawing. Drawing is a means for children to express themselves, their emotions, past, experiences and thoughts. Young children’s drawings also reveal their imagination. A child can draw a crocodile that she or he has watched on television. Thus, drawing reflects children’s social environment, school, family, what they watch on television, age, gender and culture (Anning, 2002). Therefore, evaluating only their drawing is involved in sense of traditional art. A round figure can have different meanings especially for young children. Thus, it is necessary to examine not only the drawing but also a child’s interpretation of that drawing.

Drawings are also a play area for children. They draw in the painting and by playing with drawings during the drawing activity within the process of drawing. Rather than simply pretending things, they have an imagination indicator (Wood and Hall, 2011). Thus, it is possible to see children as if they are playing while drawing in pre-school education institutions.

Drawing is mostly considered as an art activity in pre-school education institutions. Therefore, it is discussed that drawings which are made at schools do not reflect children’s imagination. At home, on the other hand, children may develop a more productive imagination in positive relationships with adults. Children have no chance option at school, whereas they have that at home. In the study conducted by Anning (2002) with young children, it is indicated that quality time spent by the mother and young child at home would reveal the child’s imagination in drawing.

Children’s imagination is a socio-cultural activity (Chen, 1998). Their imagination may include cultural characteristics like superheroes, cartoon characters, fairies, mythology and ghosts. Children’s imagination may sometimes have other cultural characteristics that are dominant over their own culture, as well (Chen, 1998).

Young children’s imagination can be presented in many different ways. For example, as in A Methodology for Assessing Imagination in Action (MAIA), a child can be asked to tell a computer-aided story and then draw a scene that she or he plays (Chu and Quek, 2013). Or the children can be asked to draw and then tell about that drawing. Drawing enables children to tell stories about their drawings (Malchiodi, 1998). The aim of this study is to reveal the dreams of children aged between 3–4 and 5 years using their drawings and narratives concerning these drawings.

Methodology

Participants

The participants consisted of 483 children aged between 3–4 and 5 years attending the kindergartens and pre-school classes in elementary school, in the city centre of Denizli Province and Tavas district, Turkey. These kindergartens and pre-school classes in elementary school were selected because they had relatively similar economic conditions and living standards in order to decrease sampling bias. Forty-two per cent (203) of the data were collected from the city centre of Denizli and 58 per cent (280) from Tavas district. It was found that while 52 per cent (251) of the children were girls, 48 per cent (232) were boys; 16.6 per cent (80) were 3 years old, 29.6 per cent (143) were 4 years old and 53.8 per cent (260) were 5 years old. The children came from middle socio-economic level.

Instruments

Clark’s Drawing Abilities Test

Clark’s Drawing Abilities Test (CDAT) includes four items: (1) draw a house, (2) draw a person running very fast, (3) draw a group of friends playing on a playground and (4) draw a fantasy world of your imagination (Clark, 1989). In this study, the children aged between 3–4 and 5 years were asked to draw their dreams. CDAT was designed to measure children’s artistic abilities. In this study, however, it was used only as an instrument for gathering children’s drawings.

Procedure

First, permissions were obtained from the Directorate of National Education for kindergartens and pre-school classes in elementary school in the sample. Consent was then obtained from the parents of the children in these kindergartens for participation in the study. Participation of the children in the study was based on voluntariness.

The data were collected by teachers with whom the children were familiar. The teachers gave the children papers and crayons and asked them to draw their dreams. Then, they asked the children to tell about their drawings and their narratives were written by the teacher at the back of the drawings. Verbal statements of the children were used as qualitative data in this study. Three-year-olds are generally at the stage of scribbling in their drawing. For this reason, the dreams of 3-year-olds were asked first and then they were asked to draw.

Children’s drawings were made according to Chen’s (1998) classification of 20 subject areas. Drawings outside these subject areas were collected under the name of Sky, Seasons, Natural Disasters and Jobs and then classified in accordance with a total of 24 subject areas. Expert opinion on the validity and reliability of the classification of the drawings was obtained. The classification work of the expert has been compared with that of the researcher. The reliability of the study was found to be .92.

Data analysis

Frequencies and percentages of children’s dreams were given according to the subject areas. The normality test of the variables used in the study was analysed by Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, and the equality of variations was analysed by Levene’s test. According to the results, the data were not normal and homogeneous. Thus, children’s dreams were evaluated with Kruskal–Wallis test according to age and with Mann–Whitney U test according to gender and region. In addition, children’s dreams were given as qualitative information.

Results

In this section, classification results of children’s dreams are given.

As is seen in Table 1, the children aged 3 years included mostly plants, foods and then, respectively, people and animals in their drawings about their dreams. The children aged 4 included mostly plants, foods and then, respectively, people and places like school and park. The children aged 5 included mostly places like school, park and then, respectively, people, plants and foods.

Table 1.

Frequencies and percentages of the children’s dreams according to age.

	Age 3		Age 4		Age 5
	f	%	f	%	f	%
1. Plants, Fruits, Foods and Objects	16	20	25	17.5	28	10.8
2. People	12	15	24	16.8	53	20.4
3. Animals, Birds, Poultry and Insects	10	12.5	11	7.7	8	3.1
4. Place: Schools, Parks and Neighbourhood; Pleasant Resorts; Landscape; and Seascape	8	10	17	11.9	55	21.2
5. Sea World	4	5	2	1.4	–	–
6. Future World	2	2.5	11	7.7	–	–
7. Space Adventure, Aliens and Multi-dimensional Space	–	–	2	1.4	5	1.9
8. Transportation Vehicles	8	10	12	8.4	25	9.6
9. Money, Gold and Wealth	–	–	–	–	2	0.8
11. Buildings and Homes	2	2.5	7	4.9	27	10.4
12. Fighting, Wars, Weapons and Military	2	2.5	5	3.5	8	3.1
13. Superheroes, Robot-like Figures and Cartoon Characters	2	2.5	10	7	3	1.2
14. Fairy Tale, Fairy Land and Mythology	8	10	5	3.5	17	6.5
15. Religion-related Images	–	–	–	–	2	0.8
16. Ghosts, Demons and Graveyards	–	–	1	0.7	1	0.4
17. Monsters, Metamorphosed Creatures	2	2.5	2	1.4	4	1.5
18. Crazy and Chaotic World, World of Upside-down	–	–	1	0.7	–	–
18. Non-representational Forms, or Abstract Patterns	–	–	–	–	2	0.8
19. Symbols, Signs and Marks	1	1.3	1	0.7	4	1.5
20. Indefinite	2	2.5	1	0.7	–	–
21. Sky	–	–	2	1.4	6	2.3
22. Seasons	–	–	1	0.7	4	1.5
23. Natural disasters	–	–	–	–	1	0.4
24. Jobs	1	1.3	3	2.1	5	1.9

The dreams of the children in the category of Plants, Fruits, Foods and Objects are as follows:

I want to plant a tree with my mom. (Girl, aged 3)

I made a big cake with a flower in its centre. The name of the cake is the flower cake. It is in the cupboard, now. Nobody can eat. (Girl, aged 4)

I want a remote-control car. (Boy, aged 4)

I want to eat cucumber in my dream. Because I love it. (Girl, aged 3)

The dreams of the children aged between 3 and 5 years in the category of People are as follows:

I want to go for a walk with my neighbour and my family. (Girl, aged 3)

I want my mother’s hair to grow. (Boy, aged 3)

I’d like to see Atatürk. (Girl, aged 4)

The dreams of the children in this study in the category of Animals, Birds, Poultry and Insects are as follows:

In my dream, I want to have a dog. (Boy, aged 3)

Rabbit are jealous of butterflies. He thought that they did not like him and he is ugly. He took the food of the butterflies from their home. (Girl, aged 5)

The dreams of the children aged between 3 and 5 years in the category of Place: Schools, Parks and Neighbourhood; Pleasant Resorts; Landscape; and Seascape are as follows:

My dream is that school is outside. I wait for the outdoor school day and I dream of it. (Girl, aged 4)

I want to go to a hotel with a pool. (Girl, aged 3)

In my dream, me and my friends play in a park. (Girl, aged 5)

The dreams of the children aged between 3 and 5 years in the category of Sea World are as follows:

I drew two whales. I want to be a whale. Because I want to live in the sea. (Boy, aged 3)

I would like to be a mermaid. I would like to have a pretty tail as hers. (Girl, aged 4)

The dreams of the children in the category of Future World are as follows:

I want a flying house. (Boy, aged 3)

I would like to fly in the air. (Boy, aged 4)

I would like to live over the rainbow. (Girl, aged 4)

The dreams of the children aged between 3 and 5 years in the category of Space Adventure, Aliens and Multi-dimensional Space are as follows:

I made a rocket to go to the moon. I designed the bottom of the rocket to take my friends with me. (Boy, aged 5)

We’re going to space with my dad. (Boy, aged 4)

The dreams of the children aged between 3 and 5 years in the category of Transportation Vehicles are as follows:

I drew a tractor, a truck, there is a trailer behind the truck, there is also a trailer behind the tractor. They carry fertilizer to the lowland. I’m driving the tractor. Ali is driving the truck. Because I like Ali. (Boy, aged 5)

I want to build a ropeway in the future. (Boy, aged 5)

The dreams of the children in the category of Money, Gold and Wealth are as follows:

A gold rain is raining. There is gold everywhere. The faces of men became gold because of wealth. (Boy, aged 5)

A treasure appeared in the rainbow. Santa Claus was coming under the rainbow. Then, Santa Claus went to get the key. Santa Claus handed out the gold to children. (Boy, aged 5)

The dreams of the children in the category of Buildings and Homes are as follows:

I dream of a house with a garden and raising a cat in its garden. (Boy, aged 3)

I dream of a colourful house like the rainbow. (Girl, aged 3)

The dreams of the children in the category of Fighting, Wars, Weapons and Military are as follows:

A battle will start between the good and the bad. (Boy, aged 5)

There are men in the picture. They are going to Istanbul to fight. (Boy, aged 5)

The dreams of the children in this study in the category of Superheroes, Robot-like Figures and Cartoon Characters are as follows:

When thieves come or there are people who need help, a rescue vehicle gives out a signal and Superman, Batman and Iron Man all go to save the people. (Boy, aged 4) (see Image 1)

I want to be Kion. I want to roar powerfully and save people. (Boy, aged 3)

I want to make a sitting robot. (Girl, aged 4)

Image 1.

Cartoon characters.

The dreams of the children in the category of Fairy Tale, Fairy Land and Mythology are as follows:

The fairy does magic. She turns the cat below into a child. (Girl, aged 4)

A princess was smelling flowers. Then, she picked one of them. She would take it to a ball. But she had no idea how she could go there. She had no car. Then a fairy came. She made a pretty carriage using the mice. She turned one of the mice into a human. She clothed him nicely. (Girl, aged 5) (see Image 2)

Dinosaur is chasing people. And the guys want to entrap it. (Boy, aged 5)

Image 2.

Fairy tales.

The dreams of the children in the category of Religion-related Images are as follows:

I drew the heaven. I drew Atatürk and myself in the heaven. (Girl, aged 5)

When I grow up, I want to go to heaven. (Girl, aged 5)

The dreams of the children in the category of Ghosts, Demons and Graveyards are as follows:

The girls were smelling the flowers. The ghost tagged along after them. ‘What are you doing?’ he said. Then, the girls got scared. Then, he made the ghost go towards the castle. The guards beat them. (Girl, aged 5)

The bugaboo and his friends are running. (Boy, aged 4)

The dreams of the children in the category of Monsters, Metamorphosed Creatures are as follows:

I dreamt of the monsters. (Boy, aged 3)

The colourful one is the huge cute monster. There are dog, ghost in the arms of the monster. They made friends and joined hands against the witch. Everybody in the world, all the living beings are friends. There is peace. (Girl, aged 4)

I drew zombies. Then, the zombies attacked people and killed them all. Then, the spirits came out, the morning came and it was over. It was a horror film. I drew a horror film. (Boy, aged 5)

The dreams of the children in the category of Crazy and Chaotic World, World of Upside-down are as follows:

Everywhere is upside down. (Boy, aged 4)

The dreams of the children in the category of Non-representational Forms, or Abstract Patterns are as follows:

Lightning strikes from brown. Thorns come out of yellow. Black is trying to beat them but it cannot. Red beats black. Black is bad. The others are good. The pink colour is mixing into all other colours. Pink is magician. Blue is with blacks, I mean it is bad. (Boy, aged 5)

The dreams of the children in the category of Symbols, Signs and Marks are as follows:

I made hearts as I watch this series much. (Girl, aged 4)

As I loved Söz series, I wrote the name of the series. (Boy, aged 5)

The Indefinite category of the children is as follows:

I just wanted to paint. (Girl, aged 4)

The dreams of the children in the category of Sky are as follows:

It thundered when we were at home. The sun set. It started to rain. (Girl, aged 5)

My dream is to go to a world with rainbow in all its parts. (Girl, aged 5)

The dreams of the children aged between the age of 3 and 5 years in the category of Seasons are as follows:

I wish winter comes and it snows. Because I like the school to be closed. (Boy, aged 5)

I drew summer. I want to play out when summer comes. (Girl, aged 5)

The dreams of the children between the age of 3 and 5 years in the Natural Disasters category are as follows:

A fire came out. It burned everywhere. (Girl, aged 5)

The dreams of the children between the age of 3 and 5 years in the category of Jobs are as follows:

When I grow up, I want to be a policeman and catch thieves. (Boy, aged 5)

I want to be a fireman. (Boy, aged 3)

When Table 2 was examined, the children’s dreams varied in the subjects of animals, places like school and park, sea world, future world and cartoon characters according to age. As children’s age increased, they dreamed less about the subjects of animals and sea world. The children aged 4 dreamed about subjects like future world and cartoon characters more than the children aged 5. As children’s age increased, they dreamed about places like school and park more frequently. There was no difference between the ages of 3–4 and 5 years in terms of the other subjects.

Table 2.

Results of the Kruskal–Wallis test concerning the children’s dreams according to age.

	Ages (years)	n	Mean rank	df	χ²	p	Difference
3. Animals, Birds, Poultry and Insects	3	80	257.69	2	10.62	.00*	3–5 4–5
	4	143	246.08
	5	260	234.93
4. Place: Schools, Parks and Neighbourhood; Pleasant outward Resorts; Landscape; and Seascape	3	80	226.15	2	8.70	.01*	3–5 4–5
	4	143	230.71
	5	260	253.09
5. Sea World	3	80	251.08	2	12.48	.00*	3–5
	4	143	242.38
	5	260	239.00
6. Future World	3	80	241.54	2	20.81	.00*	3–5 4–5
	4	143	254.08
	5	260	235.50
12. Superheroes, Robot-like Figures and Cartoon Characters	3	80	240.54	2	10.54	.00*	4–5
	4	143	251.39
	5	260	237.29

p < .05.

According to Table 3, the children’s dreams varied in the subjects of plants and foods, people, animals, transportation vehicles, fighting and wars, cartoon characters, monsters, sky and jobs according to gender. While girls dreamed about plants and foods, people and sky more frequently than boys, boys dreamed about transportation vehicles, fighting, wars, cartoon characters, monsters, animals and jobs more frequently than girls. There was no difference between girls and boys in terms of the other subjects.

Table 3.

Results of the Mann–Whitney U test concerning the children’s dreams according to gender.

	Gender	n	Mean rank	Rank sum	U	p
1. Plants, Fruits, Foods and Objects	Girl	251	250.80	62,950.00	26,908.00	.01*
1. Plants, Fruits, Foods and Objects	Boy	232	232.48	53,936.00	26,908.00	.01*
2. People	Girl	251	261.00	65,511.50	24,346.50	.00*
2. People	Boy	232	221.44	51,374.50	24,346.50	.00*
3. Animals, Birds, Poultry and Insects	Girl	251	237.08	59,745.00	27,867.00	.04*
3. Animals, Birds, Poultry and Insects	Boy	232	247.36	57,141.00	27,867.00	.04*
8. Transportation Vehicles	Girl	251	226.20	56,775.50	25,149.50	.00*
8. Transportation Vehicles	Boy	232	259.10	60,110.50	25,149.50	.00*
11. Fighting, Wars, Weapons and Military	Girl	251	234.50	58,859.50	27,233.50	.00*
11. Fighting, Wars, Weapons and Military	Boy	232	250.11	58,026.50	27,233.50	.00*
12. Superheroes, Robot-like Figures and Cartoon Characters	Girl	251	237.39	59,584.00	27,958.00	.01*
12. Superheroes, Robot-like Figures and Cartoon Characters	Boy	232	246.99	57,302.00	27,958.00	.01*
16. Monsters, Metamorphosed Creatures	Girl	251	238.96	59,979.50	28,353.50	.02*
16. Monsters, Metamorphosed Creatures	Boy	232	245.29	56,906.50	28,353.50	.02*
21. Sky	Girl	251	247.05	62,008.50	27,849.50	.00*
21. Sky	Boy	232	236.54	54,877.50	27,849.50	.00*
24. Jobs	Girl	251	237.46	59,839.50	27,961.50	.00*
24. Jobs	Boy	232	246.95	57,046.50	27,961.50	.00*

p < .05.

Table 4 shows that the children’s dreams varied in the subjects of plants, sea world, future world, space, buildings and homes, cartoon characters and jobs according to the children’s residence location. While the children living in city centre dreamed about the subjects of plants, sea world, future world, space and cartoon characters more frequently than the children living in village, the children residing in village dreamed about buildings and homes and jobs more frequently than the children residing in city centre. There was no difference between children living in city centre and village in terms of the other subjects.

Table 4.

Results of the Mann–Whitney U test concerning children’s dreams according to the children’s residence location.

	Location	n	Mean rank	Rank sum	U	p
1. Plants, Fruits, Foods and Objects	City Centre	203	254.90	51,744.00	25,802.00	.00*
1. Plants, Fruits, Foods and Objects	Village	280	232.65	65,142.00	25,802.00	.00*
5. Sea World	City Centre	203	246.14	49,966.00	27,580.00	.00*
5. Sea World	Village	280	239.00	66,920.00	27,580.00	.00*
6. Future World	City Centre	203	250.97	50,946.00	26,600.00	.00*
6. Future World	Village	280	235.50	65,940.00	26,600.00	.00*
7. Space Adventure, Aliens and Multi-dimensional Space	City Centre	203	246.83	50,106.00	27,440.00	.00*
7. Space Adventure, Aliens and Multi-dimensional Space	Village	280	238.50	66,780.00	27,440.00	.00*
10. Buildings and Homes	City Centre	203	224.19	45,510.50	24,804.50	.00*
10. Buildings and Homes	Village	280	254.91	71,375.50	24,804.50	.00*
12. Superheroes, Robot-like Figures and Cartoon Characters	City Centre	203	247.59	50,260.00	27,286.00	.01*
12. Superheroes, Robot-like Figures and Cartoon Characters	Village	280	237.95	66,626.00	27,286.00	.01*
24. Jobs	City Centre	203	237.69	48,251.00	27,545.00	.02*
24. Jobs	Village	280	245.13	68,635.00	27,545.00	.02*

p < .05.

Discussion

In this article, investigating the dreams of the children aged 3–4 and 5 years, it was determined that the children’s dreams changed from plants and foods to people and places like school and park from the age of 3 to the age of 5. These are concrete, familiar and are related with children’s daily life. Hsu (2014) also obtained similar results. In the study by Chen (1998), the subjects drawn by Taiwanese students were similar to the subjects drawn by the children in this study. In another study comparing countries, the drawings of American and Chinese children were compared, and it was determined that there was no difference in standard, whereas there was a difference in composition, colour and style (Cox et al., 1999), which can be explained with the difference between the Eastern and Western cultures. Children’s imagination is an activity with cultural bonds based on previous knowledge rather than a simple action of pretending (Chen, 1998).

Fairy tales and monsters are also common subjects among children aged 3–4 and 5 years. An increase was found in fairy tales and monsters towards the age of 5. In the study by Gündoğan (2018), it was revealed that witches were the things that the children at the age of 5 mostly were afraid of. Young children are affected by legends and fairy tales. In addition, young children are aware that they are not real (Gündoğan, 2018; Harris et al., 2006).

In addition, children are also affected by superheroes in cartoons on television (Anderson and Cavallaro, 2002). It has been observed that these heroes take place in the dreams of the children (see Image 1). This finding has consistency with the results of the studies stating that children want to be the heroes in the animated cartoon (Gündoğan, 2019). Young children act out the superheroes they see in the animated cartoons on TV in their sociodramatic role plays. It has been stated that the superhero plays are attractive for the young children, especially among girls (Marsh, 2000). Children are also aware that the heroes in the animated cartoons are not real (Middleton and Vanterpool, 1999).

In the study, it was determined that there was a decrease in the future world and sea world drawings with increasing age. The children at the age of 4 drew more pictures about future world compared to the children at the age of 5. Diachenko (2011) has stated that imagination starts to decrease and real life starts to gain importance from 4 to 5 years of age. Torrance (1967) stated that there was an increase in creativity at the age of 4. Gündoğan (2019) stated in her study that the children at the age of 6 produced more ideas compared to the children at the age of 5 as they had more experiences. In the study by Gündoğan (2019), it was mentioned that children were encouraged to produce creative ideas. In this study, in which the dreams of the children were revealed, the children were asked to draw their dreams and there was no guidance.

The subjects of animals and cartoon characters also decreased with increasing age. Drawings of places like school and park increased in parallel with age. This can be explained with the fact that children spend more time in places like school and park in parallel with the increase of age. Children reflect the places they go and the things they see and watch on their drawings more.

When considering dreams in terms of gender, while girls included subjects like plants and foods, people and sky more frequently, boys included subjects of transportation vehicles, cartoon characters, monsters, jobs, animals and fighting and wars more frequently. It is possible to state that this result was appropriate for their gender. Anning (2002) also confirms that subjects of children’s drawings are related with gender preferences.

When examining the dreams in terms of children’s residence location, subjects like plants, sea world, future world, robot-like figures, cartoon characters and space were more in city centre than village. On the other hand, building and house drawings and jobs were more common in villages. It is possible to explain this condition with people’s aspirations. While people in villages long for city life, people in city centres long for village life. In addition, people in city centres are exposed to technology more, which can explain the higher rate of subjects like future world, robot-like figures and space in city centres. That the animated cartoon heroes were more common in the children living in the city may be explained by the fact that the children living in the city tend towards indoor activities and watch more animated cartoons instead of playing outside as their playgrounds are inadequate. The children living in a village have more opportunities to play out. Limited playgrounds reduce the outdoor play opportunities for playing outside (Veitch et al., 2006).

It was observed that some children attributed human-specific characteristics to plants and objects. For example, a 5-year-old boy stated, ‘Trees wander under the rainbow’ (see Image 3). In the study by Chen (1998), American children attributed human-specific characteristics to broader things.

Image 3.

Walking trees.

While cartoon characters were more common among the children aged 4, legends and fairy tales were more common among the children aged 5. Some girls drew unicorns (see Image 4), which showed the effect of the Western culture.

Image 4.

Unicorn.

The study also has some limitations. Some of the children aged 3 either had a hard time to express their drawings or did not want to express them. Thus, their drawings were not included in the study. While 3-year-old children would talk to themselves, 5-year-olds would talk to their peers (Coates, 2002), which shows that children are able to express their drawings more easily as they get older. Future studies can include more children from the age group of 3 years. Children’s dreams are related with their experiences. Thus, it is recommended to enrich their experiences both at home and at school. The study is limited with children’s drawings and narratives only. It is recommended to conduct further studies using different techniques in order to reveal children’s dreams.

Implications for practice

This study is important in terms of revealing that young children’s dreams are significantly affected by what they see in their environment. As children grow up, they socialize by entering different environments like schools and parks. These social environments are reflected in children’s dreams. As a matter of fact, in this study, 5-year-old children dreamed of places like school, park and people. Also in this study, there was a difference between the dreams of children living in the village and the city centre, which confirms these results. From an early age, the presence of children in an environment with a lot of stimulants will enrich the dreams of children. This study shows that children with limited experiences have ordinary dreams and children with rich experiences have different dreams. Dreams are a reflection of our expectations for the future. Therefore, to enrich children’s experiences, to enter different social environments and to provide different stimulants will affect children’s dreams positively.

Footnotes

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Aysun Gündoğan

References

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Filipenko

(2007) Narrative, imaginary play, art, and self: Intersecting worlds. Early Childhood Education Journal 34: 4279–4289.

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