From the author: If you have any questions on the topic, ask them to me in a private message. Children's fear, like other unpleasant experiences (anger, suffering and short temper), are not uniquely “harmful” emotions for a child. Any emotion performs a specific function and allows children and adults to navigate the objective and social environment around them. Thus, fear protects a person from unnecessary risks when crossing the street or hiking in the mountains. Fear regulates activity, behavior, takes a person away from dangers, the possibility of injury, etc. This manifests the “protective” function of fears, ensuring self-preservation. Children's fears are a common phenomenon for the development of a child and are important for him. So, V.V. Lebedinsky emphasizes that each fear or type of fear appears only at a certain age, i.e. Each age has “its own” fears, which, in the case of normal development, disappear over time. Children's fears in the case of normal development are an important link in the regulation of the child's behavior and have a positive adaptive meaning. Fear, like any other experience, is useful when it accurately fulfills its functions and then disappears. Where do fears come from: 1) a truly traumatic experience received by a child (for example, a dog bite); 2) normal maturation (this is how, for example, the natural fear of death appears ;3) violation of relationships with parents (prohibitions, intra-family conflicts, excessive guardianship, indifference); 4) mental illness; 5) other feelings and desires that hide behind fear, as if behind a mask (for example, a child is afraid to be left alone). Such fear can be true, or it can serve as a tool for influencing parents and controlling their lives. Only a specialist in this field can fully understand the revealed reasons. It is more important for parents to take into account the factors that contribute to the emergence of fears. 6) Very often, the cause of fear in a child can be relationships with peers. If the children's team does not accept the child, offends him, and the child does not want to go to kindergarten, it is likely that he is afraid of being humiliated. Another reason may be the spread of fears among children. For example, a stronger child may intimidate the baby with different stories. Three points are important in the problem of children's fears. (Prevention of fears): Firstly, children should never be frightened for the sake of obedience by anything or anyone: not an uncle, not a wolf, not a forest. Secondly, parents never shame a child for the fear they experience. Thirdly, a child is never abandoned alone in an unfamiliar environment, in a situation where the unexpected and frightening may appear. A child explores the unknown only next to an adult. Ways to work with fears: In general, play (and its analogues such as drawing and fantasy) gives a child an excellent opportunity to master his fear. In the game, every little coward is able to experience his fear again, as if in make-believe, and thus reduce the severity of the experience. While playing, it is easy to portray the image of fear itself, and then from the child’s “master” he will gradually turn into his servant (or at least his partner). In the game, this fear can be changed by adding bright, warm colors or comic details to the image. You can even make your fear very small and feel sorry for it. In short, in working with this problem, the game provides a lot of opportunities, and all these methods are completely natural for the child. That is why you can use not even special psycho-corrective games, but folk fun games that do an excellent job of reducing various children’s fears and preventing them. I will give an example of the most universal games for preventing fears in children. Fifteen This is an ancient game that has survived to this day. Perhaps because, in addition to joy, it brings tangible benefits to children, one might say, preventing the fear of attack, injections and physical punishment. Place chairs and tables around the room in disarray. The driver must show off the player,slapping him on the back or just below. However, he does not have the right to reach the player through a chair or other furniture. Try to “stain” children (or a child) not just symbolically, but by tangibly slapping. Note. During the game chase, it is useful (and also fun) for the leader to shout out phrases like: “Well, just wait!”, “You’ll get it from me!”, “I’ll catch up and eat you!” - and similar threats, which, of course, are comic, but will help the child get rid of the fear of unexpected influence and fear of punishment in real life. Blind Man's Bluff As you probably guess, this folk game helps the child cope with the fears of darkness and confined spaces. Everyone knows the rules, but if you play indoors, it is better to make some adjustments to them. Blindfold the child who is playing the role of driver. You can spin it a little to make it more difficult to navigate the space, but this is not recommended for very anxious children or those who have a strong fear of the dark. After this, the players must disperse in different directions. When the driver shouts: “Freeze!” - they should stop in the places where they find themselves and not move anywhere. The driver's task is to find all participants. If this process is delayed, you can help it in this way: all uncaught players begin to clap their hands at the same time. In the next round, the one who was found first becomes the driver. Note. To prevent the game from becoming boring, during subsequent repetitions you can complicate the conditions by placing barriers in the room from chairs and tables. If you are playing together with a child, then it is better to do it right away, and to maintain the excitement of the game, make sounds from time to time (for example, “Ha!”, “Wow!”, etc.). This will not make the driver’s task any more primitive (after all, he will have to not just approach you, but do it by passing a labyrinth of obstacles). Hide and seek The correctional value of this folk game is the same as the previous one. At the same time, it helps to cope to some extent with the fear of loneliness, since the hidden child is left alone for some time. The rules of this traditional game are simple and known to everyone, so we won’t dwell on them. But it’s worth talking separately about the conditions that make this fun more effective in combating fears. If your child is afraid of the dark, then you can turn off (or at least dim) the light in the room, leaving it only in the corridor, where there are no convenient “secret” places. Explain this by saying that it is much more difficult to find a person in a dimly lit room than in a brightly lit one. If a child is driving, try to hide in a dark room so that he is forced to look there in search of the player. If you are the driver, then try to make the child want to hide in an unlit room. To do this, when you go in search of a child, look into the dark part of the apartment and portray fear and horror that you are afraid and will never go there. Continue to think out loud that your son (daughter), of course, will never dare to hide there; in general, there is no need to overcome your fear. Your child won’t really torment his beloved dad (mom) like that, forcing him to enter a scary room! Continue to lament in the same spirit. Then, after some time, your baby will certainly want to “torment” his cowardly parent, hiding in a dark room. After all, children love to fight with other people's shortcomings, and even more so with their parents. Note. When you find a child in the role of driver, do not forget to express great joy over the found loss. This emotional reinforcement will come in handy and will reward the baby for the efforts he has made in controlling his own feelings (after all, he had to sit quietly, perhaps in an uncomfortable position, alone in a dark room, or perhaps in a confined space such as a closet or bathroom ). All three games described above are suitable for both children from two years old and older. Interest in them fades away only towards the end»