Sydney, Aug 7 - Having an imaginary friend seems to play a positive role in a child's language development, says a new study.

Elaine Reese, professor at the University of Otago (UO), New Zealand and Gabriel Trionfi investigated the language skills of 48 boys and girls aged five-and-a-half, of whom 23 had imaginary friends.

They found that the 13 girls and 10 boys who currently or previously engaged in imaginary companion play had more advanced narrative skills than children who did not engage in this type of play.

'Because children's storytelling skills are a strong predictor of their later reading skills, these differences may even have positive spin-offs for children's academic performance,' said Reese.

The researchers assessed the children's language skills in several ways. First, they measured the children's vocabulary levels. They then asked them to tell two types of stories, one fictional and the other realistic.

In the fictional storytelling task, the children were read a dialogue-heavy book and then asked to retell the story to a puppet.