Mimeo HE-349
Agricultural Extension Service Purdue University
CHILDREN'S FEARS
Lesson 2. What Can We Do To Prevent and Overcome Children's Fears?
by
Dorothy V. Mummery
Child Development and Family Life
Extension Specialist
Summary of Lesson 1.
In Lesson 1, some of the harmful results of fear on children's development were discussed:
1.	How it may help them from acquiring many enjoyable interests and worthwhile skills.
2.	How it may interfere with their health, happiness and natural spontaneity,
3.	How it influences personality, making them shy, timid, withdrawing, afraid of life instead of out-going and trusting life.
Some of the more usual causes of children’s fears were discussed:
1.	Imitation of parents and of older brothers and sisters was suggested as probably the most frequent.
2.	Adult conversations overheard and only partially understood account for many.
3. Intentionally teaching children fear as a means of protection or discipline.
4. An experience in which the fear object becomes associated with some sudden, violent stimuli such as a loud, harsh noise or some new and strange appearance which comes unexpectedly,
5. Situations connected with a loss of support or a fall.
6.	Fears which are the aftermath of a painful experience, through association.
7. A child suffering from ill health or a sense of insecurity is a ready prey to fears. His resistance is low, just as some people’s resistance is low to germs. This is a contributing cause.
Wavs To Prevent Children’s Fears
As in the case of physical illness, prevention is the best and the surest cure for fears. This is because of two things:
1.	The seriousness of the results of fear.
2.	The fact that it is sometimes impossible to overcome a fear. There are cases of adults who have been unable to free themselves of a childhood fear even with the help of a psychiatrist. An example of this
is of a college professor who for many years never went outside of a radius of ten blocks from the campus. A psychiatrist had helped him trace it back to an incident that happened when he was two years old. His mother had taken him to the railroad station to meet his father. Just as the train was approaching, he darted toward the tracks and his mother terrified, grabbed him. Ever since, he has had the sensation of going so far, and then something holding him back. Think how this professor’s activities and experiences have been restricted! Think of the shame and humiliation he must have repeatedly suffered!