Any person has a tendency to fear, to be afraid of something. Especially for a child, because he is surrounded by such an unexplored and huge world. In order not to get echoes in his adult life, the task of parents, educator and psychologist is to help the child to cope with the problem of fears in time (one of the most dangerous emotions). The fight against fear can last a very long time. To cope with this, there are various methods of working with children's fears.
The tasks of working with children's fears
First of all, it is necessary to help the child overcome his own fears, teach him the methods of self-regulation and relaxation, remove terrible images and convert them to the category of unhappy and defenseless, teach children to properly track their own feelings, emotions and emotions of others, make the child confident in their forces.
Methods of working with children's fears
- You can use fairytale therapy. For work we take any fairy tale (artistic, didactic, therapeutic, meditative or correctional) and a special psychological sandbox. The main hero of the tale can be fear (for example, Prince Fear or terrible Sleep, etc.), and you can make fear a secondary hero or touching character, etc. Thus, important therapeutic ideas are encoded in the fairy tale. When working with different types of fairy tales, you should not restrain your creative revelations. The story needs to be built so that the development of events in it you can discuss with the child. After that, you can invite the child to draw characters of the fairy tale. Write a fairy tale on paper, it will help you in case of repeated manifestations of fears in the child.
- Kukloterapiya - another method to combat the fears of babies. In the psychology of creativity, working with a doll, you can separate the child and fear: for example, not a child is afraid, but a favorite bear or a dog. In this case, the kid turns out to be the brave, brave defender of his toy.
- Drawing can help in overcoming fears. It does not matter, even if your child does not have artistic talent. You will ask simply to draw what disturbs him. Of course, you should ask him about this in a very tactful, soft form, just ask, not order. I think that almost any parent will be able to cope with such a task.
- In addition to drawing, you can offer a child modeling of plasticine. The actions of the parents in this case are identical to those in drawing.
- In an effective way, how to overcome the fears of the child, there can be an ordinary conversation with the baby on a topic that worries him. But do not start talking with very young children. It simply will not be effective and you will not get the desired information. In order for the conversation to be productive, it is necessary for the child to fully trust the adult. Only in this situation can you call your baby to a frank conversation and defeat children's fears. This conversation should be approached very seriously. It is advisable that you have in advance thought out a list of questions based on the child's existing fears. The conversation should be friendly, therefore it is not permissible to read the questions on a piece of paper, otherwise it will not be a conversation. Pay attention to the fact that all your questions are asked simply, accessible and understandable for your child's level of development. And yet, one can not focus on one reason, because it can contribute to the emergence of a new fear.
When working with childish fears, the age characteristics of the child should be taken into account, because the syndrome of pathological childhood fears in different age categories is completely different.
However, children have such fears that only a psychologist can understand. In such cases, it is preferable to consult a specialist.
Unfortunately, the fears of children arise in most cases, not through the fault of someone, but the parents themselves (spiritual heartiness, family troubles or vice versa, excessive care, excessive attention). Therefore, it is the duty of every parent to warn and protect children from fears as soon as possible. And for this it is necessary to know what the child is most afraid of and why. After all, positive emotional contact is the basis of your child's mental and nervous health.