Working with childhood fears is not very simple and the results are not lightning fast. Yet do not rush to a specialist immediately, the parents can do something themselves to help their children.
As always the web has an abundance of information about the causes of fears (like hyper care, lack of physical activity, unstable atmosphere at home etc.) and what to expect at each age (e.g. children who get frightened by loud sounds at the age of 2 may get the fear of death at 6). But before you spend long hours to deep dive into the topic, let me share with you a fairly simple method. Even more, this method is used by children’s psychologists during therapy. It works for adults too.
First, you need to reveal the fear. Spending some one-to-one time with the child helps a lot to notice what exactly worries or frightens him (I say him because my son is 6). Ideally, you talk a lot while filling “My Bright Journal” in together, and the problem is not snowballing.
Secondly, avoid reacting excessively so as not to scare the moment of revelation away.
And third, draw the fear and play with it. That’s all. Very simple. See you in the next post.
Okay, it’s not all ) Let’s take an example. There is a drawing activity “Draw a Family for this Monster Kid” in “My Bright Journal”. It is shaped quite cute deliberately. Start the discussion with the scary stuff and then lead it into the right direction.
Literally, in our family it looked like this:
– Does this monster kid have a father and a mother probably? Oh, maybe very strict father? Let’s draw them. (You create some family story for them).
– Why do you think he scares the children? Maybe he goes to school and his parents say: “If you want to grow a successful monster, you need to learn to scare children and practice beyond homework!” – “Oh, Mom, Dad! (Make a squeaky voice for the little monster, it’s already funny, isn’t it? :)) I’m afraid of children! They awfully smell of candies!”
Well, and so on, until the fear seems vulnerable. Bringing light to a child’s darkness is as easy as talking about it and giving it a human aspect. Do not consider child’s fears as tantrums, yet do not try to protect and solve everything. Let the child know that you, as a parent, understand him/her. Sometimes it is enough.
