Seriously Bugged by Bugs: Working with Your Child to Overcome Fears
May 29, 2019
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Explore the impact of a child's fear of bugs and strategies to overcome it. Learn about supporting children through new sibling transitions. Understand how acknowledging and accepting children's fears can help them process emotions. Embrace an empathetic approach to addressing children's fears and emotions.
18:23
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Quick takeaways
Children naturally process their feelings, even if they seem irrational, validating their fears is crucial in helping them work through emotions.
Acknowledge and reflect on a child's fears without immediate solutions, creating a safe space for authentic emotional expression.
Deep dives
Understanding Children's Emotional Processing
Children naturally process their feelings, even if they seem irrational or intense. They go through stages of dealing with emotions related to changes in their environment, such as the arrival of a sibling. Acknowledging and validating a child's fears without offering quick solutions is crucial in helping them work through their emotions.
Acknowledging and Reflecting Children's Fears
Parents should acknowledge and reflect on their child's fears, even if they seem unreasonable. By validating and connecting with their feelings, parents create a safe space for children to express and process their emotions authentically. Avoiding immediate solutions and allowing children to experience their fears helps them navigate through challenging feelings.
Avoiding Accommodating Behavior
Parents should avoid accommodating children's fears by trying to make things better or offering quick fixes. Instead, they should trust the child's emotional processing abilities and support them in expressing their fears. By letting children experience discomfort and acknowledging their feelings without judgment, parents foster a healthy emotional development in their children.
A parent writes that her 3-year-old has developed a phobic response to bugs and is withdrawing from activities she’s always loved because of the fear. This mom and her husband have tried several strategies to help their daughter including acknowledging her fear, but to no avail. They’re out of ideas and assume they’re doing something wrong. “I want to show her we love and respect her emotions but also help her work through it.”
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