How to help children overcome their fears?
Almost every child has a fear inculcated by various reasons, but it’s not a big problem to be worried of. Children having fears of a kind is absolutely normal and shall be taken as childhood condition that we all have gone through, but parents need to help their child in dealing their fear, to make sure that there is no emotional or psychological damage done as he grows up.
Even adults go through certain fears that are experienced by children, reason being that their childhood fear was overlooked and never dealt with.
Many parents experience situation where their small kids runs up into their bedroom asking permission to sleep with them, as he or she is scared of being alone. Some parents ask their parents to leave the room lights on at the night, because darkness scares them. There is nothing wrong with your child if he or she exhibits any such behavior; every child has its fear, whether it’s the fear of ghost, darkness, loneliness, fire or of a pet.
While fear of darkness, staying alone or big monstrous mask is quite normal and come naturally or due to effect on carton movies or fairly tales, there are some other kid of fear that are inculcated by any kind of abuse, violence or harness experienced by the child.
Children who grow up in a harsh and unhappy environment are tend to develop social fears, fear of strangers and fear of being physically hurt. Violence in real life or in movies can also become a cause of such behavior shown by some children. Fear of exams are shown by those kids who do not perform well or those who are pressurized by their parents to get best grades al the time. While, there are some kids who fear death, due to effect of movies or loss of a loved one.
Irrespective of reason, fear among children can be tackled with little concern, care, affection and effective communication. Parents can help their kids overcome their fears by talking to them and listening to them.
First of all build a strong and intimate bond between you and your child, so that every time he or she is scared they know you are there to make things right. Listen to their fears, experience and emotions experienced by them, as this will help them open up and evaluate there fear.
Remember laughter is always best medicine. When your child finds himself or herself under the situation of fear, make them laugh. The harder a child laughs and enjoys, the faster he or she gets distracted and enjoys the situation.
Make them discuss their fears with you and talk about it, then asks them to face it. If your kid is afraid of darkness, then ask them to sing their favorite song when alone in darkness or think of their favorite toy or talk to god fairy.
Parents need to believe their child, when he or she says there is a ghost. If they don’t it will scare the kid more and by believing their child, they are helping him talk about it to them.
Even though a child having a fear is normal, it is important for parents to help their kids in overcoming such behavior to make sure that it does not grow into some kind of phobia with the growth of the child.
