Fears in children with autism. Part 2. / Almanac No. 18 / Archive / Almanac of the Institute of Correctional Pedagogy

General status information

Fear is a natural human instinct that arises as a response to a threat, a possible danger. In childhood, due to developed imagination and emotional instability, such fears in most cases are far-fetched and have no basis in reality. However, this condition is very common, is a threat to the child’s psyche and requires mandatory intervention from specialists. Childhood fear left to chance can subsequently become the cause of a real phobia, which will persist throughout the rest of life.

Causes of children's fears

Fear in children is formed due to excessive impressionability, gullibility, vivid imagination, and inability to separate reality from fairy tales. In essence, it is a response to external circumstances, where the leading role is played by the upbringing and relationships of the child with family members. There are many possible causes of childhood fears, and each of them can provoke a strong emotional shock, which can result in a severe anxiety disorder.

Experienced negative events that leave a deep emotional mark. For example, a dog bite, after which the child is very afraid of any four-legged animals, or watching a scary movie, from which the child transfers the image of villains and monsters into the real world. Such an event can be any situation where a child is faced with negativity, aggression, or a threat towards himself or his loved ones.
Intimidation by adults: parents, grandparents, teachers, strangers or strangers. Attempts at education through threats in the style of “if you don’t eat, a wolf will come running and take you into the forest” or “if you don’t listen to me, the doctor will come and give an injection” provoke well-founded children’s fears of the specified object. As a result, the baby is terribly afraid of any picture that depicts a wolf or a large dog, and a real meeting with doctors in case of illness leads to prolonged hysteria.
Increased anxiety among parents for the safety of the child. Constant worries from adults, pulling back, warnings about possible danger (“don’t go near the dog, it will bite”, “don’t climb up, or you’ll fall”) emotionally program the child’s mind for failure. As a result, the baby develops a feeling of anxiety, which gradually develops into an unaccountable fear of elementary actions, new places and events.
Aggression from adults. When parents or other close relatives openly demonstrate their strength and superiority over the child on every occasion, this reduces the child’s level of trust in adults and leads to the fact that children constantly expect trouble. Such behavior also often leads to pathological lying: trying to avoid punishment and aggression, the child lies literally at every turn.
Adult computer games, films, animated series and books that contain scenes of violence and death. When faced with evil in any of its manifestations, the child unconsciously transfers the acquired knowledge and experience to real life. As a result, the heroes “come to life”, lying in wait for the baby around the corner, in a dark room, under the bed.

In some cases, the cause of fear in children is mental disorders (neuroses, neuropathy), and then fear becomes a symptom of a specific disease that can and should be controlled.

Fear is a person’s reaction to a real or imaginary (but experienced as reality) danger.

Fear is a common feeling. Having experienced it once in some traumatic situation, we will experience it in a similar situation again and again.

Fear comes with experience. We are frightened by what once disturbed our soul and consciousness. It is rare that anyone is afraid of those objects and situations in which they have never actually found themselves, or at least have not seen or read about it. Fears appear along with cognitive activity when the child grows and gradually begins to learn about the world around him. It develops in society, and adults play the leading role in education. Therefore, the child’s mental health depends on how competent our words and behavior are.

According to Zakharov, girls not only have more fears than boys, but their fears are also more firmly connected with the emerging personality structure, and, above all, with its emotional sphere.

In both girls and boys, the intensity of connections between fears is greatest at 3-5 years of age. This is the age when fears “cling to each other” and form a single psychological structure of anxiety. It can be assumed that fears at this age are associated with the intensive development of the emotional sphere of the individual.

The maximum of fears is observed at 6-8 years of age, with a decrease in the intensity of connections between fears. Starting from the age of 5, intellectual development, primarily thinking, comes to the fore. Fear is more complexly psychologically motivated.

How much this or that fear will be expressed and whether it will be expressed at all depends on the individual characteristics of mental development and the specific social conditions in which the formation of the child’s personality occurs.

Causes:

The child is afraid of everything new and unknown, animates objects and fairy-tale characters, fears unfamiliar animals and believes that he and his parents will live forever. For children, everything is real, therefore, their fears are also real.

1) A specific incident that frightened a child

2) Characteristics of the child (the consolidation of fears is facilitated by such traits as anxiety, suspiciousness, pessimism, self-doubt, excessive dependence on other people (parents, educators, teachers), physical and mental immaturity, sickness)

3) Intimidating education (“go to sleep quickly, otherwise Baba Yaga will take you away!”, “Don’t run away, otherwise your uncle will put you in a bag and take you away with him!”, “children who don’t eat well are taken by a bear into the dark forest!” ")

4) Excessive parental care: “Don’t go there, it’s dangerous”, “Don’t touch this, you’ll cut yourself” (instilled fears, the parents’ increased anxiety is passed on to the child)

5) Severe punishments or threats, authoritarian education

6) Quarrels between parents

7) Children's fantasies (often provoked by scary fairy tales, films, cartoons, books with scary plots, overheard adult conversations, computer games)

The first reason is directly related to the second and third - because not all children turn a traumatic specific incident into fear. This largely depends on the child’s character traits (anxiety, suspiciousness, pessimism, self-doubt, dependence on other people, etc.) And these character traits can arise if the parents themselves intimidate the child: “If you don’t sleep, Baba will take you away.” Yaga!

For the most part, we ourselves teach our children to be afraid. Some careless word can be forever etched in a child’s memory and lead to irreparable consequences when he becomes afraid on an unconscious level. The cause of children's fears can be numerous prohibitions from parents and educators, as well as anger and threats from adults towards the child.

But the most common are instilled fears. Their source is the adults surrounding the child (parents, grandmothers, teachers), who involuntarily, sometimes too emotionally, warn the child about danger, often without even paying attention to what frightened him more: the situation itself or the adult’s reaction to it. As a result, the child perceives only the second part of the phrases: “Don’t walk, you’ll fall,” “Don’t pick it up, you’ll get burned,” “Don’t pet it, it’ll bite you.” It is not yet clear to the child what this threatens him with, but he already clearly feels anxiety, and it is natural that he has a reaction of fear, which can take hold and spread to the original situations. Such fears can be fixed for life. Of course, when the child grows up, the fear will dull, but it will not disappear!

Children's fantasy is one of the most common causes of fear. A child is an emotional being. Often he himself comes up with the subject of fear. But each child reacts differently to such fantasies. Someone will fantasize, be a little afraid (who among us didn’t hide under a blanket as a child?), and then forget and calm down. And for some, these fantasies can lead to irreparable consequences.

Very often, a child feels guilty for parental conflicts and is afraid of being the cause of them. It is noteworthy that preschool children from conflict families have more frequent fears of animals (in girls), the elements, illness, infection and death, as well as fears of nightmares and parents (in boys). Also, 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 and rejected. Another reason may be the spread of fears among children. For example, a stronger child can intimidate the baby with different stories, “instill” his fear.

Children living in separate apartments are more likely to have fears than children living in communal apartments, especially girls. In a communal apartment there are many adults, more peers, opportunities for joint games and less fear.

Thus, boys and girls are afraid more often if they consider the mother, and not the father, to be the main one in the family. The working and dominant mother in the family is often restless and irritable in her relationships with her children, which causes anxiety responses.

Anxiety in emotionally sensitive children aged 5-7 years also arises as a result of the desire of some mothers to go to work as early as possible, where the main part of their interests is concentrated. They send their children to preschool institutions early, into the care of grandparents, other relatives, and nannies, and do not take their emotional needs into account enough.

Ambitious, overly principled, with a painfully acute sense of duty, uncompromising mothers are overly demanding and formal with children who always do not suit them in terms of gender, temperament or character.

The age of parents is also important for the development of fears in children. As a rule, children with young, emotionally spontaneous and cheerful parents are less likely to show signs of worry and anxiety. Children with “older” parents (after 30 and especially after 35 years) are more restless, which mainly reflects the anxiety of the mother, who married late and did not have children for a long time.

Types of fears.

Some fears accompany a certain age period.

In children under one year of age, they are expressed in anxiety at loud noises, and also associated with the absence of the mother or her mood.

At 2-3 years old, a child may be afraid of punishment, pain (for example, from a doctor), loneliness and especially the dark. These fears are typical and normal for a child of this age.

At 3-4 years old, fears appear related to the development of the child’s imagination. The kid can come up with some kind of monster himself and then be afraid of it for a long time, thinking that it lives under the closet.

Children aged 6-7 years may develop a fear of death, their own or their loved ones. The child already knows that a person can die, so many ordinary everyday or natural situations (thunder, thunderstorm, etc.) can cause panic.

If parents see that fear does not cause the child much concern, they can try to cope on their own. There are many methods for identifying fears.

1) First you need to talk to your child. You need to carefully and kindly find out what exactly the child is afraid of.

2) The reaction of parents to the presence of fear should be calm. You cannot remain indifferent, but strong anxiety and a negative emotional background can lead to an intensification of the problem.

3) The more the child talks about fear, the faster he will be able to get rid of it.

4) Share your experience with your child, talk about what you were afraid of as a child and why, and be sure to talk about how you stopped being afraid.

5) A very good method is to compose a fairy tale or story with your child on the topic of his fear. The end of the story must be about how the hero overcomes fear.

6) Drawing fear is the most common and effective method of dealing with it. And after the child draws, burn the paper with the drawing, and be sure to explain to the child that fear no longer exists, that you burned it, and it will never bother him again.

7) You can also use games or dramatizations to combat fears. This is best done in a group of children. Therefore, parents cannot use this method on their own, and must act together with a specialist psychologist conducting group therapy.

Communication of a child with peers who also have fears is in itself an excellent method of correcting fear neurosis. The child will feel moral support, new acquaintances will help him take his mind off his thoughts (the same stories after lights out in pioneer camps are an excellent example, a prototype of thematic forums of the future).

Drawing. During classes, the child must draw independently, without the help of adults. It's not easy to start drawing fears. It often takes several days before the child decides to begin the task. This is how the internal psychological barrier is overcome - fear of fear.

The interest that appears when drawing gradually extinguishes the emotion of fear, replacing it with strong-willed concentration and satisfaction from the task completed. Invisible support is also provided by the very fact of the participation of the psychologist who gave this task, to whom you can then entrust your drawings and thereby, as it were, free yourself from the fears depicted in them.

Correction technique of A.L. Wenger "Destruction of Fear". The psychologist uses this technique in the presence of one of the parents, who will subsequently, if necessary, remind the child of the method shown to him to overcome fear.

The technique includes five stages: a preliminary conversation, creating an image, destroying the image, rationally explaining to the child the meaning of the technique shown, and relaxation (the last stage increases the effectiveness of the technique, but is not mandatory). The implementation of each stage varies in accordance with the child’s age, mental makeup, condition, attitude to the task, etc.

Fantasizing. Not all children have concretely expressed fears. There are cases when uncertainty, inexplicable anxiety and suppressed emotions prevail in a child. In such cases, we asked the neurotic child to close his eyes and fantasize on the topic “How do I imagine my fear.” Not only imagine what it looks like and its size, but also what it smells like, what fear feels like. The child was asked to be this fear and tell on his behalf about his feelings, why this fear scares people. In the name of fear, the child tells himself who he is and how to get rid of it. During dialogues, we monitor the change in the child’s intonation, because it is here that important memories may flash through, concerning his main internal problems, which need to be worked with in the future.

In group classes, a relaxation method was used to relieve muscle tension and games for body contact.

Fear plays an important role in a child’s life; on the one hand, it can protect against rash and risky actions. On the other hand, positive and persistent fears hinder the development of a child’s personality, fetter creative energy, and contribute to the formation of uncertainty and increased anxiety.

Fears inevitably accompany the development of a child and the appearance of various emotional disorders and psychological problems is associated with a number of adverse events that occurred in childhood.

Prevention of fears consists, first of all, in nurturing such qualities as optimism, self-confidence, and independence. A child must know what he is supposed to know by age, about real dangers and threats, and treat it adequately.

Correction of fears is carried out through play therapy, sand therapy, fairy tale therapy, art therapy, puppet therapy, psychoelevation, individual and group classes, and improving parent-child relationships.

Drawing is used for corrective purposes. By drawing, the child gives vent to his feelings and experiences, desires and dreams, rebuilds his relationships in various situations and painlessly comes into contact with some frightening, unpleasant and traumatic images.

The importance of active corrective work with children’s fears is due to the fact that fear itself can have a pathogenic effect on the development of various areas of the child’s personality.

Classification

By type, children's fears are classified in a variety of areas, ranging from the causes of their occurrence to the severity of symptoms. In general, all conditions are divided into three groups:

obsessive fears that are caused by actually experienced life situations (fear of animals, heights, confined spaces, water);
delusional fears, when the logical relationship between the object of fear and the cause of fear is illogical, even absurd;
overvalued fears, when the starting point is any event that activates the child’s fantasy; this condition does not go away, the fear gradually grows, covering all the thoughts and feelings of the baby.

In children, the most common are supervaluable types of fear, which the child cultivates in himself, inventing new details, endowing the object of fear with amazing abilities and qualities.

School of Modern Psychotechnologies

“Fear and hope are two weapons,

with the help of which people are controlled"

J.J. Rousseau

The phenomenon of fear has been the object of religious and philosophical understanding since ancient times, as one of the most striking and at the same time significant manifestations of the emotional sphere of a person. Basic views on the essence and nature of fear, the conditions for its occurrence and role in human life are presented in the works of many philosophers such as B. Spinoza, Descartes.R, Kant.I, scientists of various psychological schools and directions Watson.J, Hall.S, Freud .Z, Adler.A, Rogers.K, Kempinski.A, in the theories of emotions of Wundt.W, James.W, Izard.K and the concepts of fear by Kagan.J. Most of the work of Russian scientists on the problem of fear is based on the research of V.N. Myasishchev, I.P. Pavlov, S.T. Shatsky, V.I. Garbuzov, A.S. Spivakovskaya. In the psychotherapeutic direction, this topic is covered by A.I. Zakharov, Yu.V. Klimakova, O.E. Khukhlaeva, within the framework of extreme psychology by Ts.P. Korolenko, V.I. Lebedev, V.S. Mukhina and others.

However, it is interesting to note that even Diogenes of Sinope (c. 400-325 BC) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna c. 980-1037 AD) distinguished between experiences of current danger and fear of future danger . They emphasized that in humans, unlike all other “living creations,” fear is associated not only with the immediate perception of danger, but also with a premonition of possible danger [2].

Let's figure out what is meant in modern psychological science by the phenomenon of fear and the mechanisms of its occurrence.

In the dictionary of V.P. Zinchenko and B.G. Meshcheryakov states that fear is a negative emotion that arises as a result of a real or imaginary danger that threatens the life of the organism, the individual, and the values that protect it [4].

E.P. Ilyin considers fear as an emotional state that reflects a protective biological reaction of a person or animal when they experience a real or imaginary danger to their health and well-being. However, as the author claims, if for a person as a biological being the emergence of fear is not only expedient, but also useful, then for a person as a social being, fear can become an obstacle to achieving his goals [3].

It is known that ordinary fears appear in people as a result of learning to be afraid, by repeating “fantasies in a dark room”, based on the experience of others.

The fear that appears as a result of a strong emotional experience, learning, and in one attempt, is based on one’s own emotional experience. Such fear is called a phobia; it is characterized by an instant learning speed and always an external aggressor, which is the main difference between phobias and other fears. A single experience, due to the generalization mechanism, turns into many external aggressors - ALL dogs, elevators, airplanes become dangerous...

And so, as mentioned above, fear, panic attack or phobic reaction can arise as a result of learning based on real or imagined danger. [4].

As for real events, the mechanism of fear is quite clear: a neural chain is organized in the cerebral cortex that connects the event and the emotional reaction to it. How can a feeling of fear arise in the absence of an aggressor, when a person is in a comfortable, protected space?

To do this, it is necessary to clarify the features of perception and storage of information by our brain. We know that the world is given to us in our sensations thanks to the senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. If the emotional background is not very high, a person has to repeatedly perceive external information in order to imprint it and store it in memory. For example, when we studied some boring subject at school, we had to repeat and repeat what we read, “memorize”.

At the same time, an interesting, emotionally charged presentation of the material made it possible to “grab everything on the fly.” And an extraordinary event, colored with vivid emotions, perceived immediately through all sensory channels, is remembered, leaves its imprint instantly, and, characteristically, not in verbal form, but in images, sounds, taste, olfactory and tactile sensations. It is often said that it leaves an indelible mark. A trace in our memory, i.e. trace activity of the cerebral cortex.

Who or what can refresh our memory and enable trace activities? It is known that the basis of our learning and the formation of habits is the brain’s ability to build associative connections between external stimuli and internal information, emotions, which help us understand all the phenomena of the external world. Such associative chains in NLP are called Anchors. Any phenomenon of the external world that evokes emotion, both positive and negative, is that same Anchor.

Anchors exist in all modalities: you saw an old photograph or heard your favorite melody, and the smell of mimosa or Chypre cologne...and...we were carried away to the land of memories. And if on Friday you think about the weekend, future vacations, fishing... and... here it is - joy!

The most interesting thing is that our consciousness and body are united, they represent a system, and our body will respond to these external “anchors” and or thoughts, and those emotions that we once experienced or those that we expect to receive in the future return to us.

Thus, through external stimuli or thoughts about them, we gain access to our resources or fears. Next comes the work of the kinesthetic system - magically, following thoughts, transfer feelings and bodily sensations from the past or future to the present, to the “here and now”, to that moment, which is called Life.

If we return to our question about the reasons for the experience of fear, then thanks to the mechanism described above, a person’s unique ability manifests itself, in the absence of an aggressor, to begin to experience discomfort.

For example, a person suffering from a phobia does not need to be near a dog to be afraid of it, just think about it - it’s already scary... If you have claustrophobia, you don’t need to go into the elevator, just think about the fact that you have to ride in it - and the person is already suffocating.

Fear that arises in the present, in the absence of an aggressor, shows that we react not to the event itself, but to the memory of this event, to those pictures, sounds and feelings that the trace activity of the cerebral cortex was able to preserve.

How to help people, what can be done about this? This is the question to which the scientific and practical interest of psychotherapy is directed.

From the point of view of the NLP concept - you can remember in different ways! For example, the founders of this direction in psychotherapy, R. Bandler and J. Grinder, working in a neurosis clinic, identified the following feature of the encoding of events in patients - they remembered pleasant events dissociated, in the form of pictures that were far away, small and dark, while negative ones events - were seen side by side, colored and associated. Let me remind you that people who know how to encode and store information in this way ended up in the clinic of neuroses. And, of course, it is logical for you and me to assume that in order to recover, we just need to swap these pictures: move the negative ones away, get out of them, make them small and black and white, and bring the pleasant ones closer and color them, i.e. recode the storage of information, learn to REMEMBER IN A DIFFERENT WAY[2].

It is on these brain capabilities that NLP techniques are built, which help change clients’ attitudes towards stressors that cause phobic reactions, fears, and unpleasant situations.

How do you code your experience? Think in turn, first about a pleasant situation, and then about a neutral one. Where do the pictures appear, what size, color are they, are you inside the situation or looking from the outside? Move these pictures, closer and farther, play with color, and then return everything to its original place. How have your sensations and feelings changed? Congratulations, now you have joined the ranks of wizards who know how to CHOOSE what and how to remember! Be afraid or rely on your experience to move on!

How, said Zh.Zh. Rousseau: “Fear and hope are the two weapons with which people are controlled.” Each of us can choose, yes, CHOOSE, which people often forget, how to move through our lives. Does a person agree to be controlled by fears and realize the goals of other people, or relying on his own experience, using it as a resource, to go towards his own!

Literature:

R. Bandler, J. Grinder From frogs to princes. - Corvette, 2010.
Large explanatory psychological dictionary, volume 1 A. Reber Veche AST Moscow 2000
Ilyin EL. Emotions and feelings. - St. Petersburg, 2001.
Psychological Dictionary, ed. Meshcheryakova B.G., Zinchenko V.P. M.: 2003

Source link (PDF)

Symptoms of childhood fears

The manifestations of pathological fear directly depend on the age of the child.
During the newborn period, this condition is characterized by instinctive shudders, throwing of arms above the head, loud crying, and restlessness. As the baby develops, he begins to recognize his mother, remembers her smell, voice, and when his mother leaves for a long time, he begins to worry and cry, thus expressing his emotions. As the year approaches, fear of strangers, large objects that make loud sounds or approach quickly may appear. All this is reflected in restless, whiny behavior, and with sudden fear it turns into sudden loud crying, an attempt to turn away from the source of negativity.

At a more conscious age, symptoms of fear in children may include:

the child’s categorical reluctance to stay in the room alone;
the need to spend all the time next to mom/dad/grandmother at any moment of the day or night;
covering your face or closing your eyes when passing a certain place in an apartment or house;
nightmares turning into prolonged crying in reality;
a child’s complaints about being stalked by fairy-tale characters, cartoon characters or films;
sudden screams and crying when there is a sudden change in lighting, a loud sound, or the appearance of a stranger in the field of view.

The older the child gets, the more opportunities fear has. As children grow up, they gain knowledge and experience that can be reflected in their emotional state. For example, in the event of the sudden death of one of the relatives, a similar plot in the film, the child begins to pathologically worry about his own safety, the life and health of his parents, or, having received a scolding for getting a bad grade, a schoolboy is afraid to return home. The child begins to look for ways out of an unpleasant situation that are available to him, tries to avoid inevitable disaster, which as a result becomes the cause of real physical problems: headaches, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, constipation.

Children's fears are not just a temporary phenomenon that kids outgrow. Due to constant worries, mental illnesses can develop, which are much more difficult to combat: obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. Teenagers who suffered from some kind of fear at a younger age become suspicious, unsure of themselves, afraid to start new relationships, and experience difficulties in communication, learning and socialization.

Games and exercises aimed at correcting children's fears

Children's fears and ways to correct them in preschool children
Author: Shchipitsina Marina Ivanovna, educational psychologist, MBDOU "Savinsky kindergarten", Savino village, Perm region, Karagay district. Description of material: I bring to your attention games selected for parents to correct children's fears. As a rule, the correction of fears is carried out to a greater extent by parents, so parents need to try different methods of working with their child’s fears. The material will be useful to parents of preschool children, teachers and psychologists of preschool educational institutions. Goal – Relieving fears in children Objectives: 1. Develop social trust. 2. Develop inner freedom and looseness. 3. Help in overcoming negative experiences. Fear is a mental state associated with a pronounced manifestation of asthenic feelings (anxiety, restlessness, etc.) in situations of threat to the biological or social existence of an individual and aimed at the source of real or imaginary danger. Children's fears are a thoroughly researched topic by psychologists, doctors, and teachers, but not fully studied. Children are afraid of injections and dragons, dogs and the giant who lives under the bed, loud sounds and moths... Causes of children's fears: a multi-traumatic situation, authoritarian behavior of parents, impressionability, suggestibility, stress, illness.
Children often develop situational fears due to unexpected touching, too loud a sound, falling, etc. The fact that a child is experiencing fear is evidenced by the following: - does not fall asleep alone, does not allow the light to be turned off; - often covers ears with palms; - hides in a corner, behind a closet; - refuses to participate in outdoor games; - doesn’t let mom go; - sleeps restlessly, screams in his sleep; - often asks to be held; - does not want to meet and play with other children; - refuses to communicate with unfamiliar adults who come to the house; - categorically refuses to accept unfamiliar food. Verbal and artistic exercises
1.Draw your fear. The child is asked to draw his fear on an A4 sheet of paper. When the drawing is ready, ask: “What do we do now with this fear?” 2. We come up with a fairy tale. Together with your children, compose a fairy tale about a magic chest that contains something that conquers all fears. What could it be? Have the children draw it. 3. We come up with and draw a friend. Ask your child: “Who do you think is not afraid of anyone or anything?” When the child answers, add: “Let's try to draw him (her).” 4. Rainbow of power. Draw a rainbow on a sheet of watercolor paper and separate small pieces from pieces of plasticine (the primary colors of the spectrum). Invite your child to smear the pieces, repeating out loud: “I am brave,” “I am strong.” “I am brave” - the children repeat, smearing the plasticine with their right hand; “I am strong” - smearing plasticine with his left hand. 5. Where does fear live? Offer your child several boxes of different sizes and say: “Please make a house for fear and close it tightly.” 6. Let's scare fear. Invite your child to listen and repeat the poem after you: Fear is afraid of sunlight, Fear is afraid of a flying rocket, Fear is afraid of cheerful people, Fear is afraid of interesting things! I will smile, and fear will disappear, It will never find me again, Fear will get scared and tremble, And it will run away from me forever! The child repeats each line, smiles and claps his hands. 7. Throw out fear. Children roll a ball out of plasticine, saying: “I’m throwing away fear.” The ball is then thrown into the trash bin. 8. If I were big. Invite your child to imagine that he has grown up. “How will you drive away fear in children when you yourself become an adult?” 9. Letting go of fear. Inflate the balloons and give them to the child. Releasing the ball into the sky, repeat; “Balloon, fly away, take your fear with you.” While the ball flies away, repeat the poem. 10. I will feed my fear. Invite your child to listen and repeat after you the poem one line at a time: Fear is afraid of sunlight, I’ll take three kilograms of buns, Sweets, cakes and cheesecakes, Cookies, chocolate, Jam, marmalade. Lemonade and kefir, And cocoa, and marshmallows, Peaches and oranges, And I'll add blue ink. Fear will eat it all up and behold, his stomach hurts. Fear's cheeks puffed up, fear shattered into pieces. When the child repeats the poem, ask him to draw a picture for it, 11. Burying the fear. Prepare boxes of sand and one large empty box. Make several flat circles out of clay. Ask your child: “What will this fear be called?” (Fear of the dark, fear of noise, fear, “they won’t take me out of the garden,” etc.). After receiving the answer, offer to shackle the fear. When all the fears are buried, place the boxes in a large box and invite the child to draw a guard who will not let the fears out of the box. The box must be hidden in a closet and locked with a key. 12. Magic wand. Attach a ball of plasticine to the tip of a pencil, coat the pencil with glue, and wrap it in tinsel (rain, foil). Attach beads and seed beads to the plasticine ball. Put the wand down for 5 minutes to “gain the magic.” Learn a “spell” against fear: I can do anything, I’m not afraid of anything, Lion, crocodile, darkness - so be it! The magic wand helps me, I am the bravest, I know it! Repeat the “spell” 3 times, circle the “magic wand” around yourself. 13. Finger puppet theater. Act out scenes in which one of the dolls is afraid of everything, and the others help her cope with her fear. You should ask children what options for dealing with fear they can offer, encourage them, and come up with as many options as possible. 14. Let's trample fear. Spread three sheets of Whatman paper on the floor. Pour boys' paints into plastic plates. Invite your child to step into the paint and walk through whatman paper with words; “Now I’ll trample on fear, I want to become brave!” 15. Invite your child to listen and repeat the poem after you: Shout exercise: I clap (clap my hands), I stomp (sink my feet), I growl loudly (pronounce “r-r-r”), I drive away fear (wave my arms) 16. Let's make up a horror story. You start the story, and the child adds one sentence at a time. For example: “It was a terrible night... A big dog came out for a walk... She wanted to bite someone...”, etc. The parent should end the horror story funny; “Suddenly a large bowl of ice cream came down from the sky. The dog wagged its tail, and everyone saw that it was not at all angry, and they gave it a lick of ice cream.” 17. We write to the wizard Dobrosil. Draw your fear and write: “Wizard Dobrosil, turn my fear into... (globe, candy, rainbow, dragonfly...). Seal letters in envelopes. Bring the child the answer. 18. We are brave and friendly. Children stand in a circle, holding hands, and repeat the poem line by line after the psychologist, raising their hands up at the end of each line.
I'm not afraid of anything with my friend. Neither darkness, nor a wolf, nor a blizzard, nor vaccinations, nor a dog, nor a bully boy. Together with a friend I am stronger, Together with a friend I am braver. We will protect each other and conquer all fears! Theatrical sketches.

An improvised screen can be made from 2 chairs and a blanket, the characters are toys.
19. Sketch of a terrible dream. A boy or girl goes to bed, and suddenly... something scary appears in a dark corner (providence, wolf, witch, robot - it is advisable for your child to name the character himself). The “monster” must be portrayed as funny as possible. The child doll is afraid, trembles (all emotions should be greatly exaggerated), and then he himself or with the help of the mother doll turns on the light. And then it turns out that the terrible monster is just a curtain fluttering in the wind, or clothes thrown on a chair, or a flower pot on the window... 20. Sketch of a Thunderstorm The thing happens in a country house or in a village. The doll child goes to bed and is just falling asleep when suddenly a thunderstorm begins. Thunder rumbles, lightning flashes. Thunder is not difficult to convey, and lightning does not have to be shown, just saying it is enough. By the way, speaking (and not just demonstrating events and actions on a screen) in therapeutic sketches is extremely important. The child-doll is shaking in horror, chattering his teeth, maybe crying. And then he hears someone whining pitifully and scratching at the door. This is a small, chilled and frightened puppy. He wants to enter a warm house, but the door just won’t budge. The “child” feels sorry for the puppy, but on the other hand, it’s scary to open the door to the street. For some time these two feelings fight in his soul, then compassion wins. He lets the puppy in, calms him down, takes him to his crib, and the puppy peacefully falls asleep. In this sketch, it is important to emphasize that the “child” feels like a noble defender of the weak. It is advisable to find a small toy dog so that it is noticeably smaller than a child doll. You can act out these and similar scenes with your child, and if he refuses at first, make him a spectator. The best thing is when adults become the audience, and the child is the only “actor” playing different roles in turn. 21. Sketch based on a scene from the cartoon “A Kitten Named Woof.” Invite your child to “go” to the cartoon “A Kitten Named Woof.” A kitten climbed into the attic during a thunderstorm and sits there alone, trembling with fear. Everything around is roaring, but he doesn’t run away and even invites his friend, the puppy Sharik, to be afraid together. Discuss the characters' actions and then act out the scene. 22. Game “Bee in the Dark” “The bee flew from flower to flower (chairs of different heights, cabinets, etc. are used). When the bee flew to the most beautiful flower with large petals, she ate nectar, drank dew and fell asleep inside the flower (a table is used that a child climbs under). Night fell imperceptibly, and the petals began to close (the table is covered with cloth). The bee woke up, opened her eyes and saw that it was dark around. She remembered that she remained inside the flower and decided to sleep until the morning. The sun rose, morning came (the matter is removed), and the bee began to have fun again, flying from flower to flower.” The game can be repeated, increasing the density of matter, that is, the degree of darkness. 23. Exercise “Swing”. The child sits in the “fetal” position: he raises his knees and lowers his head to them, his feet are firmly pressed to the floor, his hands are clasped around his knees, his eyes are closed. The adult stands behind him, puts his hands on the child’s shoulders and carefully begins to slowly rock him. The child should not “cling” with his feet to the floor and open his eyes. You can wear a blindfold. The rhythm is slow, the movements are smooth. Perform the exercise for 2 - 3 minutes. 24. “Tumbler” (for children from 6 years old). Two adults stand at a distance of a meter, facing each other, with their hands out in front. Between them stands a child with his eyes closed or blindfolded. He is given the command: “Don’t take your feet off the floor and feel free to fall back!” The outstretched arms catch the falling person and direct the fall forward, where the child is again met by the outstretched arms of an adult. This swaying continues for 2 - 3 minutes, while the amplitude of the swaying may increase. Children with severe fears perform the exercise with their eyes open, the amplitude of the swing is minimal at first. 25. Game “In a Dark Hole” In the room where the child is, as if by mistake, turn off the light for 3 to 5 minutes. Invite your child to imagine that he is in a mole's hole. A firefly hurries to visit him with his magic lantern. A child who is afraid of the dark is chosen to play the role of the firefly. "Firefly" with the help of his magic lantern (use any pre-prepared lantern) helps children reach the illuminated place. 26. Game “Shadow” Calm music sounds.
The children are divided into pairs: one child is the “traveler”, the other is his “shadow”. The “Shadow” tries to accurately copy the movements of the “traveler” who walks around the room, makes various movements, unexpectedly turns, crouches, bends down to “pick a flower,” pick up a “beautiful pebble,” nods his head, jumps on one leg, etc. Bibliography

1. Aralova M.A. Directory of a preschool educational institution psychologist. – M.: 2007 2. Sazanova N.P. Novikova N.V. Overcoming aggressive behavior of older preschoolers in kindergarten and family. - St. Petersburg: 2010 3. Working with parents: practical recommendations and consultations on raising children 2-7 years old - Volgograd - 2009

We recommend watching:

Children's fears and how to deal with them. Do-it-yourself didactic game for children 2-6 years old. Felt mosaic Games with an eraser for children 3-6 years old Do-it-yourself multifunctional teaching aid for kindergarten. Miracle cube

Diagnostics

The main way to determine the presence, cause and level of fear is a conversation between the child and a specialist. Using psychotherapeutic techniques and questionnaires, the doctor can identify the original source of the experience and assess the child’s current emotional state. The so-called projective techniques, when a psychologist asks children to draw or express their fear in other creative ways, have considerable diagnostic value in this regard.

In the case of real mental disorders, a standard set of examinations is carried out, including laboratory tests, EEG, MRI of the brain, consultations with a neurologist, pediatrician and other specialized specialists.

Treatment of childhood fears

The main goal of therapy is to create a favorable home environment for the child, which will embody calmness and confidence.
Emotional support from parents is very important: this way the baby will feel that he is not left alone with his problem, he has protection. The main methods for correcting children's fears are:

psychotherapy, including individual conversations with a psychologist, during which children discuss their emotions and experiences, learn to express and overcome fear, as well as projective techniques;
medicinal support aimed at reducing anxiety, normalizing sleep, stabilizing the baby’s emotional background;
family psychotherapy, during which the doctor helps parents find the right approach to the child, select reasonable parenting methods and restore trusting relationships between children and adults.

It is very important that parents take children’s fears seriously and do not brush off children who complain, in the opinion of adults, about nonsense.

Six Steps to Overcoming Fear

To be able to help your child cope with irrational fears, it is necessary for him to encounter situations or places that frighten him. Of course, children and adolescents tend to avoid anything that frightens them, but their defensive behavior prevents them from understanding that frightening situations or places are not dangerous.

The process of facing your fear is called “exposure.” The principle of exposure suggests that the child must repeatedly encounter frightening situations until he ceases to be afraid of them. The exposure itself is not dangerous and does not lead to increased fear. After some time, the child’s anxiety will tend to decrease.

Children and teens should start with the least frightening situations and move to those that make them feel the most fear and anxiety. Over time, they will feel more confident in these situations and may even begin to enjoy them.

Often this process occurs naturally. A child or teenager who is afraid of water takes regular swimming lessons and first puts their feet and legs in the water, then goes down to the waist, then submerges the whole body and finally begins to dive under the water. Children and teenagers with a fear of water can eventually fall in love with swimming. The same process occurs when children and adolescents learn to ride a bicycle, skate, or drive a car.

Exposure is one of the most effective ways to overcome fear. However, it requires careful planning, encouragement, modeling and reward.

How to do it

Step 1: Help your child gain understanding

Help your child understand the importance of facing their fears.
Use examples. Ask your child relevant questions: “Sasha is afraid of water, but really wants to spend time with friends in the pool. What can he do to stop being afraid of water?
Most children and adolescents understand that in order to stop being afraid of something, they need to boldly face and resist it.
You can explain this rule to your children as follows: “It is very important that you face your fears and understand that the situations that frighten you are actually safe. Although you will be scared at first, with practice the fear will begin to decrease. Start with what scares you the least, and gradually move on to what scares you the most. Over time, you will get used to these situations and eventually you will probably even come to love them.”

Step 2: Make a list of everything that scares your child

Together with your child or teenager, make a list of situations, places or objects that he or she is afraid of.
For example, if your child is afraid of leaving you or doing things on their own, the list might include: staying at a friend's house without mom for ten minutes; play alone for twenty minutes; be at a friend's birthday party without your parents for thirty minutes. If your child is afraid of socializing, the list might include: saying “hi” to a classmate; teacher; call a friend on the phone.

Helpful Tips:

Group your fears. Children and teens have many different fears, so it is helpful to group similar fears together. For example, your child may be afraid of making mistakes, going to school, or being away from their parents. Children's fears can be grouped as follows: fear of separation from parents or family members; fear of communicating with adults or other children; fears associated with physical danger (swimming or cycling); fears related to nature (fear of animals or insects); fears associated with medical procedures (fear of doctors, dentists, injections).
Work on overcoming fears with your child. Together with your child, make a list of situations that frighten him. Young children may need more help from you, while teenagers often prefer to do it themselves. You just need to offer your child your help.

Step 3: Create a “ladder” to overcome fear

Help your child organize the list of scary situations and objects from least to most scary. To do this, he needs to rate his fears on a scale from 0 (no fear) to 10 (very scary). This scale can also be called a “fear thermometer.” Young children probably won't be able to rate their fear on this scale, but they can tell you which situations are easy for them and which are the most difficult. Once your child has assessed each situation, make a final list of his fears in the form of a “Ladder” for overcoming fear.

Helpful Tips:

Ask your child to identify a specific goal (for example, sleeping alone in his own room), and then make a list of steps needed to achieve that goal (for example, first sleeping in his parents' room on a mattress on the floor, then sleeping in his own room with the door open, etc.) .d.).
If a child has several different fears, build a “ladder” for overcoming fear for each of them.
Reward brave behavior. Confronting your own fear is not easy, but the rewards you use will help encourage your child to behave bravely.
Children and adolescents respond positively to praise and encouragement. For example, you can say: “Well done! You were playing at a friend’s house without your parents,” “You got to know other kids great!” and “I’m proud of you for sleeping in your room.”
When your child is faced with a strong fear, it can be helpful to use a special reward as motivation to achieve a goal.
Each “ladder” should also contain instructions and define what the child should do in a not very anxious situation, what he should do in situations of moderate fear and, finally, contain hints about what he finds extremely difficult to do right now. It is important to gradually move from less to more fear.
Some steps in the ladder can be broken down into smaller steps. For example, if your child is afraid to talk to classmates, break down the fear into several steps, such as saying “hi” to a classmate, asking a quick and short question, and then talking about how his weekend was.
It is also important to consider other factors that may influence your level of fear. For example, time period (talking to a classmate for 30 seconds is probably less scary than talking to a classmate for five minutes); time of day (stay alone in your room at lunchtime or in the evening when it’s dark); environment (swimming in a pool or lake); people close to the child (to visit a friend with his mother or older brother).

Step 4: Face your fears

Encourage your child to systematically engage in activities that cause him the least fear (for example, constantly saying “Good afternoon” to strangers) until his anxiety about this activity decreases even less. If the situation is such that your child has to stay in it for a certain period of time (for example, being close to a dog), encourage him to stay in this situation until he feels his own anxiety level decreases (for example, the child can stand near with the dog 20–30 minutes). Once your child can handle a situation without feeling too anxious, he can move on to the next fear on his list.
For some children or adolescents, it is helpful to model appropriate behavior ahead of time. For example, practice with your child the greeting “Good afternoon” when meeting people (known and unknown) or show them how to safely pet a dog.
Encourage your child to track their own progress. He can fill out a fear-confrontation form that will help him determine how much his anxiety about the feared situation has changed after he has faced his fear several times, and what he has learned from it. Make copies of this form and ask your child to fill out one each time he faces his fears.

Helpful Tips:

Do not hurry! After all, looking into the eyes of what scares you is very scary. Support your child and do not rush him, take into account his own pace.

Step 5: Practice

It is important for a child to regularly practice facing his fears. Some skills can be practiced daily (for example, spending time alone in your room), while other skills can be practiced only occasionally (for example, sleeping at a friend's house). However, the more often a child practices, the faster his fear will disappear!

Step 6. Aim for a Specific Goal

Offer your child a special gift (player, book, treat, toy, craft) or an interesting activity (go to the movies, the circus, an amusement park, go to a restaurant for lunch or dinner, play a game, cook a special dish together). As your child learns to successfully overcome his fears, you can reduce the number of rewards while still praising your child.

When a child overcomes his fear, he can reward himself with positive self-talk (for example, “I did a really good job!”) and enjoyable activities (for example, watching a favorite movie).

Prevention

Parents and family members are the most important people in a child’s life; they are the ones responsible for the atmosphere in the home, the relationship between adults and children, and the overall healthy environment.

In order to reduce the likelihood of fears in children, it is advisable to:

do not show young children films with scenes of violence, murder, or persecution of people by fantastic creatures;
read age- and developmentally appropriate books and stories;
dose games on your computer, tablet or phone;
do not overdo it with overprotection;
do not intimidate children with fictitious objects and, especially, with real people (doctors, police officers, emergency services, teachers, neighbors, strangers);
Do not show aggression towards children.

In most cases, with a timely response and adequate parental assistance, fears originating from childhood remain there, turning only into not very pleasant memories at an older age.

Psychologists and neuropsychologists at the SM-Doctor clinic will always come to the rescue in the fight against childhood fears. We offer individual and group therapy, play sessions and much more. Together we will find an approach even to a child with a difficult character.

Fears in children with autism. Part 2.

In the previous, first, part of the article, we talked about the fact that fears and anxiety in children with autism, like other behavioral problems, manifest themselves depending on the variant of the syndrome in different forms and with different intensities. Thus, with the deepest disruption of interaction with the environment, there may be a lack of a sense of danger, a special “fearlessness” of the child; another severe variant of autistic development is characterized by multiple firmly fixed fears. Fears may be obvious, may underlie negativism, aggression, persistent hobbies of the child, his special interests, or be of a generalized nature.

Fear cannot be assessed unambiguously as a negative symptom. However, if it gives rise to inappropriate behavior of the child, is an obstacle to his development, that is, makes it difficult to adapt to the environment, then this is a pathological way of responding that requires correction. Speaking about such a complex developmental disorder as childhood autism, we understand that overcoming or reducing fears (as well as each of the behavioral problems) cannot be a separate special task of psychological assistance to a child. This work is a necessary component of a holistic system of correctional interventions aimed at developing the interaction of an autistic child with the environment, increasing his activity, endurance, interest, and flexibility in contacts with the world. In this case, two main complementary directions can be distinguished: first of all, the creation and maintenance of conditions that maximally ensure the reduction of the level of generalized anxiety and the prevention of the emergence of new fears, on the other hand, the careful neutralization of already acquired large numbers and fixed fears. Let us consider in more detail how these problems are solved in different variants of autistic development (groups of early childhood autism according to O.S. Nikolskaya’s classification).

The ease of discomfort, anxiety and fears are most pronounced in children of the second group. These manifestations extremely disorganize the child’s behavior, make it difficult to contact him, and extremely limit his interaction even with his immediate environment.

It is known that a decrease in anxiety is observed when the situation in which the child finds himself is predictable, when its development is limited, that is, when it is sufficiently simplified and stabilized. Of course, fear of change - the main fear of such a child requires caution in introducing some new details into his environment and usual activities, and dictates the need to use accessible stereotypical forms of interaction. At the same time, there is also the possibility of gradually developing greater affective stability and, accordingly, the child’s flexibility in relations with the world. It is implemented subject to its additional toning through the “connection” of an adult to his own forms of autostimulation (picking up and repeating the rhythm of the child’s activity, his vocalizations and words, compressed play actions with the introduction of meaning into them, positive emotional accents). This allows us to record the first forms of interaction, in which the possibility of direct emotional infection opens up, raising his mental tone, which creates greater resistance to stress. This, in turn, allows one to gradually enrich familiar forms of life and develop the initially collapsed stereotypes of play or everyday contact. The dosed introduction of positive details that are meaningful to the child gradually makes the interaction more complex and flexible.

The transition to the stage when the child himself designates the object of fear is possible only after long and careful work on the accumulation of positive, tonic details and their reproduction by the child (often, against the background of a special emotional upsurge, he begins to repeat them after the adult). This is possible through emotional commentary in a game, in a drawing, in watching a cartoon, etc.

To mitigate the affective tension associated with generalized anxiety, we create a situation of “acute security” in the game. To do this, the adult and the child hide under the table, under a blanket, in a playhouse, i.e., in a safe shelter, the reliability of which should be constantly emphasized with appropriate comments contrasting the coziness and comfort in this “safe place” with the certain danger of another space where “the wind is blowing”, “it’s pouring like a bucket”, “a blizzard is raging”, etc. We can persuade the child to look out the window at the raging elements or even jump out together for a second under the “rain and wind”, and then immediately return to our warm and reliable shelter. Such “training” can lead to the fact that a child who usually does not talk about his fear, in this situation of heightened emotional comfort, can unexpectedly report it (“you’re afraid of a dog”, “a scary wolf”) or give away a frightening object with a directed aggressive action (for example , jump out of the shelter, hit the electrical outlet with your foot and immediately come back).

The appearance in a child of such short aggressive actions aimed at an object that frightens him means that a mechanism for overcoming fear begins to form in his rudimentary form. A child can forcefully throw a toy wolf or kick a rattling car. This could also be a form of condensed verbal aggression: “Close, close, so that he doesn’t come out.” In such cases, it is necessary to support the child without whipping up “passion,” but offering him a simple resolving commentary on what is happening, infecting him with your calm intonation, emphasizing the insignificance of the frightening object or situation: “It will rattle and stop,” “close, close the door so that it doesn’t blow.” . In our practice, such a quick resolution of a negative impression expressed by a child is called “collapsed psychodrama.” In such cases, you should not try to explain why he was afraid, to say: “Don’t be afraid!”, because this can only exacerbate the fear.

Thus, what is progressive in the development of a child with severe disruption of interaction with the environment is, along with the constant desire to drown out traumatic impressions by autostimulation, the emergence of a tendency to overcome danger, to master the situation. This is already an exit to a more complex stage of affective adaptation to the world around us, at which autistic children of the third group are located.

If in children of the second group we often have to guess about frightening objects, then in children of the third group they are completely obvious. Such a child constantly talks about them and includes them in his verbal fantasies. However, those close to the child often do not assume that his strange stereotypical interests and hobbies are closely connected with the underlying fear, that the child is drawn to exactly what he is afraid of. For example, he constantly demands to be taken to the trash heap, to ride the elevator again and again; loves to smear dark colors; climbs towards the fire, tries to turn the gas on and off; finds spiders everywhere. The tendency to master a dangerous situation often manifests itself in such children by fixating on negative impressions from their own experience, from the books they read, especially fairy tales. Moreover, it is typical to “get stuck” not only on some scary images (pirates, Koshchei, cannibal, shark, saber-toothed tiger, etc.), but also on individual negative details, to which one often shows special sensitivity (for example, the loud cry of a bird , sharp fangs, sticky web, “dense” forest). A child can endlessly “grind” them, ask the same obsessive questions that often look ridiculous, and include them in his monotonous monologues and fantasies. Sometimes a child may identify himself with some negative character (for example, the evil dog Dick).

Quite often, the attraction to the scary, to the unpleasant manifests itself in a child’s desire, which is especially difficult for parents, to provoke them into a negative affective reaction: screaming, tears, the threat of punishment. Usually the mother or grandmother becomes the object of such provocations; the child chooses the one who reacts especially violently. This manifests itself most acutely in a tense situation, in public, when his behavior begins to be discussed by others and reinforced by their condemning reactions. The only way to partially solve this problem is to focus on affective non-reinforcement of the child’s provocative actions.

The desire to overcome fear, which we constantly observe in such children, is not capable of in itself ensuring its elimination. This is only a prerequisite for the development of the expansion mechanism, which in this case turns out to be flawed: the child constantly builds up affective tension, but cannot resolve it on his own. Therefore, the main task of correctional work comes down to the formation of a mechanism for overcoming the terrible.

To do this, first of all, it is necessary to raise the child’s mental tone by saturating his play with simple affective actions: let him play with water and paints, move a toy train, knock on a xylophone or piano keys, blow soap bubbles, etc. Small objects used in the game (mosaics, cubes, construction parts), fiddling with water often provokes generalized aggression, when the child begins to scatter everything, scatter, splash water, smear paints. In this case, it is necessary not to impose a ban on such actions (as the child expects), but to try to give them a positive, socially acceptable meaning (comment on how to play “fireworks”, “waterfall”, “fish splashing in water”, etc.) . As a result, the child, who never actually plays, but only “scrolls” verbally his stereotypical statements or more detailed, but also monotonous fantasies, begins to perform directed actions with objects. This situation for a child of the third group is similar to the situation of “acute security” that we create when working with a child of the second group. Feeling protected, the child decides to take aggressive actions towards objects and toys that cause him fear. So, he can step on a toy crocodile, push it further into the closet

Attempts to instantly resolve such acute moments in the game, as well as suppress the persistent aggressive statements of the child, are usually unproductive. It seems to us that the most effective option is “distracting psychodrama”. Various forms are possible:

Immediately involve the object of fear in the game, not allowing the child to “get stuck” in aggressive actions, start fussing with the frightening character, giving an overall emotionally positive meaning to what is happening. For example: “Why does the wolf growl so loudly? His teeth probably hurt. That's right, that's right. We need urgent treatment” - and immediately organize “treatment” according to all the rules: put on a white coat, discuss with the child what tools are needed, do everything necessary on the go (assemble a drill from a construction set, prepare fillings from plasticine, etc.). At the same time, the child can partially give vent to his affective tension, but in a socially acceptable form - “drill his teeth”, “give an injection”. Then you need to write out a prescription for the wolf and put him to bed. In the meantime, you can “notice” that one of the other animals has fallen ill, that someone else urgently needs the help of such an “excellent doctor” - and now a whole line of “sick people” is going to see him. Thus, a detailed, detailed game of “treating animals” is organized, constantly focusing the child’s attention on the moments of “recovery.”
You can agree with the presence of a frightening character in the game, promise the child that we “will certainly deal with him, but now we have more important things to do,” and immediately begin to unfold the game’s plot. For example, packing for an expedition. To do this, it makes sense to remember together with your child about the essentials for a trip to Africa or a circumnavigation, to prepare “provisions” and “uniforms”. Along the way, various obstacles will have to be overcome, and the child can perform aggressive actions justified by the plot, which are given a positive emotional meaning (for example, “clear the road in the jungle”). In the course of events, he has to perform a number of feats (“Such a daredevil and a wonderful swimmer cannot pass by the castaways!”). In the end, it turns out that “we are so tired that we don’t even want to talk to this robber.”

The presence of frightening objects or situations in the plot triggers the desire to overcome, thus creating and maintaining in the child the affective tension necessary for organizing his long-term, purposeful activity. When developing the game plot, we use this energy charge, dose it, stretch it, and distribute it to play each of the plot elements. Thus, the affective tension associated with fear is relieved, as it were, “in parts.” A terrible impression, having entered a complex semantic context, loses its self-sufficient meaning and is resolved in the overall positive experience of the game situation.

Similar work can be done with the help of joint drawing with the child, in many cases this is even more productive, since during the game the child can more often become overexcited and break into impulsive aggressive actions. But at the same time, it is also important to prevent him from getting “stuck” on the object of fear, and to do this, supplement his drawing with details that are “important” for the plot, introduce, clarify (just like in the game) and draw on positive details. The use of this method is especially shown when the child himself constantly and stereotypically depicts some frightening image, situation (for example, some “sharp” fragment from a cartoon, book, advertisement), or their individual detail.

With an increase in the number of positive details, with their recognition by the child in his affective experience (in some everyday pleasures, daily habits and unusual vivid impressions, which, of course, the psychologist needs to know), there is a high probability of infection by the adult’s comment and changes in semantic meaning accordingly. accents of the depicted story. The intensity of infection by the experience of rich but positive details, which is provided by an adult, allows you to change the course of the developing plot, in the optimal case - to achieve its positive outcome. This is the content of the last stage of work. Let us emphasize once again that in this way we do not “get rid of” a specific fear, but allow the child to be distracted from it, to gain at least a small but important experience of empathy for positive impressions, the initial experience of dialogue.

Children of the fourth group are fearful, inhibited, and unsure of themselves. To the greatest extent, they are characterized by generalized anxiety, especially increasing in new situations, when it is necessary to go beyond the usual stereotypical forms of contact, when the demands of others in relation to them increase. An increase in anxiety is usually expressed in the appearance of motor restlessness, fussiness or, conversely, excessive stiffness, and the occurrence of obsessive movements (choking, blinking, grimacing). Anxiety can manifest itself in a variety of fears based on increased sensitivity to sensory impressions (noisy household appliances, wind-up toys, subway trains, loud voices, etc.) and to really dangerous situations (heights, dogs, etc.). Since such a child is extremely emotionally dependent on his mother, he is easily infected by her anxiety. Often, in this way, fear for the state of one’s health and the health of loved ones arises and is reinforced.

The most typical fears for children of the fourth group are fears that grow out of the fear of a negative emotional assessment of their behavior by others, especially loved ones. Such a child is afraid of doing something wrong, of being “bad,” of not meeting his mother’s expectations, of being insolvent. This is often associated with manifestations of negativism, some kind of refusals, prohibitions (for example, a child says: “You behave badly in the theater”). Note that the reasons for these fears are quite real: he is slow, speaks poorly, has difficulty concentrating, and is poorly oriented in an unusual environment. Thus, predominantly negative experience of his interaction with the environment accumulates.

Children in this group usually do not have the desire to overcome the terrible. Although in a number of cases it is observed in the embryo and has a more natural (less distorted) character than in children of the third group. This is a very good sign prognostically. For example, having fallen from the stairs, a boy climbs up again; turns off the light and sits in the dark; Fearing the sound of a vacuum cleaner or juicer, he turns on the device himself. A child can monotonously pronounce the impression that frightens him, repeatedly repeating: “There is current,” “How is the juicer humming?”

In such cases, when a child indicates fear in this way, it can be included in the plot of a game or a joint drawing, but also under the obligatory condition of surrounding it with positive details of the story and emphasizing them. With this least severe variant of autistic development, the child is most ready for emotional infection, succumbs to it more easily and more consistently, therefore, filling the plot with positive and tonic details allows him to be distracted from the most “tamed” fear and neutralize and even overcome it. For example, around a rather acute impression for a boy associated with a water heating device on a train, which he often uttered (“hot water gurgles in a boiler”), the plot of a joint game with an adult on the long trip of the child’s whole family to his grandmother and grandpa for a summer vacation. At the same time, at first the child’s own activity was limited only to “making” the boiler and repeating the phrase about gurgling water, but gradually, following the psychologist, he began to participate in careful preparations for the trip (“what not to forget”), in preparing the train, in building a tunnel and etc. In a joint game, it became possible to enjoy other acute and initially frightening experiences (to jump through a tunnel, climb onto the top shelf, etc.), and the cauldron was remembered only when, after all the adventures, “it would be nice to have tea with delicious crackers.”

However, more often such a child is saved only by a close emotional connection with his mother or another close person who will support, encourage, and once again praise. In general, he strives to avoid negative affective impressions, immersing himself in familiar forms of activity. Working with children of the fourth group, using the play stereotype, we have the opportunity not only to cope with generalized anxiety, but also to try to form in them a mechanism for independently overcoming fear. To do this, we are gradually developing the most detailed game possible with elements of psychodrama, where the child must take on a heroic role in the fight against dangers.

A necessary condition for this is to increase the child’s activity and dosed training of his emotional endurance, which is achieved primarily by filling the game with affectively rich actions. We swing the child on a swing, spin him around in our arms (“training for an astronaut”); we provoke them to jump from low heights, to climb ladders; to aggressive actions necessary for the “future hero” (roar “like a lion”; shoot accurately; crack the whip “like a brave trainer”). At the same time, however, it is very important not to become confined to these simple affective actions, but to switch the child’s attention in time to some other, fairly bright twist in the plot. It may already contain an element of overcoming - first, an extremely compressed psychodrama with a quick resolution of a tense situation (for example, guide a toy train through a “dark tunnel,” “dive” for a second like a big fish, and immediately “emerge”).

The mechanism of overcoming fear should begin to be mastered in less significant, although quite stressful situations for the child; His most acute fears and experiences cannot be touched upon at first. In this case, the following techniques can be used:

creating a situation of “acute security”, which is described above and which we actively use in working with children of the second group;
playing up the successful completion of a situation of potential danger in which something “almost” happened (“When we managed to run up in time, the milk almost ran out of the pan,” “The tram almost left,” etc.);
introduction into the plot of the game of a “prankster” - a character who is generally nice, but loves to play mischief (Pinocchio, Carlson) or just a “stupid kid” (Dunno), who can be scolded and even sometimes punished for small offenses: put in a corner, not allowed to go for a walk, leave without ice cream. Using this technique, we must remember how important correctness of behavior is for a child of the fourth group, therefore “pranks” should be dosed - within the framework of ordinary, familiar everyday situations.

Gradually, such plots should be lengthened: attention should be fixed longer on the “approaching danger” (due to the introduction of new details of the plot) and, accordingly, the moment of a happy resolution of a tense situation should be delayed. This can be done by playing with the child, drawing with him, reading him a fairy tale (“Cat, Blackbird and Rooster”, “The Three Little Pigs”, “Pinocchio”, “Doctor Aibolit”).

When reading, the development of psychodrama is achieved by a gradual increase in content: first, the book can be read in an abbreviated version or even briefly retold, then the missing episodes can be introduced. In this case, constant comments from the adult are necessary, reflecting his attitude to what is happening and giving an emotional assessment of events and characters. In no case should you get stuck on individual negative affective details, which are quite common in fairy tales and add poignancy to the story. For now, they can only prevent the child from grasping the basic, holistic emotional meaning of what he read.

Particularly effective is speaking and drawing stories filled with real details about the child himself, in which he appears as a “helper”, “a very big boy”, “daredevil”, “defender”, “hero”, etc. With their help, you can gradually get closer and to more acute impressions for the child from his personal experience, when he himself begins to talk about the fear he once experienced (“how the aunt swore”, “how the drill drilled”). At a certain stage of correctional work, when the child already has a fairly large stock of heroic stories about himself, he can accept a formulation that he then begins to use independently to overcome many of his fears: “When I was little, I was afraid” or “Kids - they always do this.” they get scared."

Thus, by increasing the child’s tone, carefully stimulating the desire to overcome, developing the mechanism of expansion in socially acceptable forms, we teach him ways to master the experience of terrible things, to overcome fear independently.