What do parents do in most cases when their children become afraid? They begin to say that there is nothing to be afraid of here, that there is nothing scary in the dark, fairy-tale characters, dogs, injections, etc. not at all. In other words, they begin to devalue the child’s feelings and, even worse, they leave the child alone with this unpleasant feeling. The feeling of fear “settles” in the child and can subsequently lead to stress, whims, insomnia, poor performance, and anxiety. How to respond correctly to a child’s fears, and how to help him get through these difficult situations? No matter how strange it may sound, there is only one piece of advice: let the child fear himself. A cartoon immediately comes to mind about Kitten Woof, who went into the attic with his puppy to be afraid of a thunderstorm and was shaking there with fear. If you are afraid together, as the animals did in the cartoon, it is not so scary. You share your fear with someone else, you become stronger, and this allows you to live through any fear. My son was 3.5 years old when he became afraid of sleeping with the door closed and in the dark. When I began to ask him what exactly he was afraid of in the dark, he replied that it seemed to him that someone was living under the bed. We turned on the light, looked from all sides, and found no one. The next day the situation repeated itself. We turned on the light, looked under the bed, I remember that I even said casually: “You see, there’s no one here.” It did not help. But one evening I decided to talk about this “monster” (as the child called him). What is it - big or small? What is it doing under the bed? Where do you go during the day? What can it do? Who is it afraid of? Who is he friends with? What does he like to eat? We talked about him for about ten minutes. Sometimes he was very afraid, sometimes it was easier for him to talk about this “monster”. I supported him, took him by the hand, and was afraid with him. And it worked! Moreover, that evening I placed a soft toy next to his bed - a lion, which would protect him from this "monster", although it did not seem so scary to him. The first time the child allowed me to turn off the lights in the room and close the door. And the next evening I heard from the child that he no longer needed a lion for protection. So, to help the child survive fear, you need to talk about it. And this is the first way you can cope with this fear. There can be a lot of options here: you can put a “guard” (as I did), you can try to make friends with fear, come up with a funny name or nickname for this “monster,” or name some funny habits. Alternatively, there may be some other feelings being experienced here, for example, the child is very angry that this “monster” lives under his bed or is angry at the doctor who gave him a painful injection. The main thing is not to be afraid to look fear in the eye. I would like to give one more example. A few months ago I saw a seven-year-old girl who was very afraid of dogs. She did not have any negative experiences (the dog bit, attacked, etc.). She was simply afraid of big dogs. Or rather, a specific dog that came out with its owner from the neighboring entrance and walked in the yard. We talked about this dog and drew it. Then she picked up scissors and began to cut her drawing into small, small strips. And these strips are cut into even smaller ones. When her and I’s fear “crumbled” into small pieces, I told her that now it was impossible to bring it back, glue it together, or put it back together. Together we collected all these small pieces and wrapped them in a large piece of paper and threw them in the trash. After 2 weeks, we consolidated the result: I asked her to draw her fear of dogs and I saw bewilderment in her eyes. Parents can use this technique at home with their children. Fears can also be played out. If the baby is frightened by any situation, you can play it out at home with your parents, living through every feeling. For younger children I offer a game that parents can also use at home and at any time. It's called "Hare and Elephant".!