Helping Your Child To Deal With Their Fear

“Oh Dolly, do you know there is a ghost in my bedroom? The ghost appears every night, and makes me scared. I told mamma so many times about that, but she never listens to me carefully. She keeps me telling that now I have become 6 year old, so I have to fight with it. But don’t you think dolly that the ghost may also eat me up some day? I really feel scared sleeping alone. Can’t you help me out Dolly? Oh God! I forgot that you are just a doll. How big fool am I. I think I should write a letter to God and tell him about my condition. Ok! Tomorrow I will do that. We should now sleep; so good night dear Dolly.

There is no person probably in the world who can say that they don’t fear anything. It is a feeling that every person experienced at least once in their lifetime. But in case of children, this fear may give birth to a number of problems. Their fears mount the most when they are separated from their parents. This fear is mostly seen in children aged between 8 to 24 months. But parents should make children understand that they will return back. There are various ways through which parents can help children cope up with their fears.

Playing peek-a-boo with the infants is a great way to make them used to a parent vanishing. Gradually kids learn to move the paper or scarf by which parents are hiding their face to bring them back. Children basically suffer from tree kinds of fears- of sudden motion, of loud or abrupt noises and of sudden approach. When they start understanding their surrounding environment, these fears gradually diminish. These fears are naturally caused in children and arise at specific times in their development. Children live in a world created by their own imagination. They believe the world of fairy tales and supernatural things. This also sometime becomes the root cause of their fears.

Children's fears are often associated with avoidance, discomfort, and physical complaints, such as rapid heartbeat, stomach distress, sweaty palms, or trembling. There are certain things that parents need to follow to help their children to deal with their fear.

These are as follows:

• When a child encounters a particular fear, we should not laugh or deny their argument. This may make the child to hide the inner feelings from us. We should listen to them and then try to logically make them understand that there is no such thing that the child is scared of.

• Some children need more attention from their parents. It’s a natural inclination that they develop. By singing a song at bed time or telling them a story of moral values it can be comforting to the children. we need to spend extra time with them when they feel scary or suffer from some anxiety.

• When children follow a particular routine in their daily life, they become used to the everyday happenings. so to follow a particular routine is very essential to fight with the inner fear.

• It is important for children to be aware of all their feelings including fear. Only after knowing about that, they can develop some defensive measures against them.

• As mentioned at the beginning of the article, play can be a good way to help children come out of their fear. This is especially useful to prepare the kids for big changes.

• Most importantly, children need to boost up their self confidence so that they can overcome their fears. Confidence gives them strength to fight with the scary emotions.

Following a seriously stressful event, some adults and children have found it helpful to talk with a health professional such as a psychologist, a social worker or physician who can help children understand and deal with how they are feeling.