From the author: Information for parents “I remember as a child I was very afraid of dogs. It seemed to me that every dog ​​running past wanted to bite me or, even worse, eat me. I was very scared…". This is how one of my clients began her story about her problem. She sought advice about fear while walking with her child in the park, where they simultaneously walk dogs without leashes and muzzles. The discomfort she felt when seeing dogs caused her extreme pain. As you probably already guessed, the origins of fear in this example come from childhood. Only now this is an already formed obsessive fear - a phobia, but in childhood it was the germ of a fear that the child could cope with himself (and it would be easier), with the help of parents, relatives or a psychologist. It was not for nothing that I started this article with a similar story . Children's fears cannot be ignored. Seeing the presence of fears in a child in time is very important! I’m not calling for deliberately looking for frightening things or situations in your child, but it won’t hurt if the child’s emotional sphere is not left without attention, especially if it “gives distress signals.” Not a single child grew up without fears. The list of childhood fears is long and varied. Some are afraid of the dark and being left alone at home, others - of dogs large and small, others - of disasters, accidents, fires, and others - of doctors or hairdressers. Some are afraid of fictional monsters from horror films, and others are afraid of real offenders from their class. Often the sources of children's fears are us, adults, threatening punishment. Add here television, crime news, the horrors of military conflicts and details of explosions. What is children's fear? Fear is one of the dangerous feelings of a child. It paralyzes the baby and forces him to remain in tension forever. Fear constantly depletes the nervous system and leaves a negative imprint on the psyche. I would like to tell you about my experience of working with childhood fears. At the first stage, it is necessary to help the child make a list of those things that he is least and most afraid of. Depending on age, it is necessary to choose an accessible form of identifying fears. For small children, aged 3 to 7 years, this should be a game, drawing: I suggest the child distribute fears in the houses: Not very scary fears in the red house, Very scary fears in the black house. Then, at the second stage, I ask the child what he would like to do with terrible fears, and I invite him to do this: draw a big lock on the door and throw away the key; put them in a cage, cross them out, shade them, tear up the paper, burn them, etc. The most important thing is to talk about fear with the child, without exaggerating it or minimizing it. Let your child know that you respect his feelings and can share them. Tell us what fears you had as a child and how you dealt with them, that you dealt with them at all. When working with the fears of children of primary school age, I identify fears with the help of a story or fairy tale that the child composes himself, at the end of which I always come up with a way to get rid of this fear and a happy ending. The sand therapy method works very effectively in the fight against children's fears. Playing with sand is a natural and accessible form of activity for every child. A child often cannot express his feelings and fears in words, and then playing with sand comes to his aid. By acting out the situations that worried him with the help of toy figures, creating a picture of his own world from sand, the child is freed from tension. And most importantly, he gains invaluable experience in symbolically resolving many life situations, because in a real fairy tale, everything ends well. Whatever method of dealing with childhood fear you choose, it is important that you do not leave the child’s complaints unattended. Only in this way will you be able to raise a person who is not complex, but confident..