Many parents face the problem when the child is afraid of darkness. Most often, this is observed in children of younger and preschool ages. At the moments of fear, the child asks to sleep in the parent bed and cannot calm down until he falls. Is it possible to help your baby cope with his fear? Let's try to figure it out in this matter.
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Factors contributing to the appearance of fear
Fear of darkness in children can cause the following factors:
- The TV can serve as a factor of fear, especially if the plot of cartoons is based on negative heroes. To avoid the manifestation of fear, children at night should not be allowed to watch TV.
- Beating - this factor can provoke an attack of fear, if you scare a child with fictional creatures for the night. If your child is trying to convey the cause of his fear, try to listen to him carefully and explain that fear does not exist, and no one and nothing can scare him in the dark.
- Psychological situation in the family - often children begin to experience fear or excitement in situations when parents conflict among themselves. It can serve as a reason for fear to sleep alone.
To smooth the situation, you should pay more attention to the child, he must trust you and tell about his children's experiences and fears. Treat frequent support, especially for the night, and then the fear of darkness in the child will gradually disappear from the children's subconscious.
Prohibiting actions if the child is afraid of darkness
In case of fear, when a child is afraid of darkness, parents should take into account some rules. First of all, do not try to prove the opposite, that there are no fictional heroes that hugs fear. Children's logic is unable to realize the correct meaning of the existence of fictional objects. Try to convince all the characters are benevolent and not harm.
It is not worth allowing a child to sleep in your bed: Even if the baby is tearing to ask you about helping and rushes to sleep in your bed, prohibit him, otherwise there are all the chances of teaching a child to sleep in your room, even when it won't be a terrible darkness. In the eight years old, the kid should no longer be afraid to sleep alone in a dark room. If such a situation has a place to be and the child sleeps with his parents, then it is worth thinking about what situations contributed to it.
It is impossible to scold a child, calling cowardly - this method will not help overcome the fear of darkness, but on the contrary, it will cause problems of a psychological nature. Do not put parents to put in an example of children who sleep independently in their bed and are not afraid of a dark room.
How to wean a child afraid of darkness?
To prove to the child that darkness is not scary, try to play with him in hide and seek. During the game, watch the kid hide: if it is dark places of the rooms, then they immediately praise it for courage, it will give confidence and reduce the level of phobia.
Often the manifestation of dark areas appears at a biennium and can last up to seven years. The fantasy of the child who is negative and the fear of darkness depends on a number of factors that took place with the child during the day.
In the evening, these events scroll into memory, and each sound or rustle can cause fear of the baby. Each toy or shadow seems to be a terrible creature, and therefore he will never sleep alone in her room.
Placeing a child to sleep, parents must try as much as possible to give him their attention, read a fairy tale or tell the story. It is possible in the first stages to get rid of fear to leave the lamp with a slightly burning light bulb. If it turned out that the child is afraid of a cartoon character, ask him to draw this character. At the end of drawing, brush together with the baby drawing and convince that the fear no longer exists, and therefore there is nothing to be afraid. These effective ways will help avoid psychological problems in the future.