Teachers Are Counseling Students To Eradicate Their Fears
It is a very normal human instinct that they often get things done by kids by scaring them though not in a very serious manner. Kids often do mischievous things, deny going to school, or try to abstain from eating healthy food. In these scenarios, parents often install a sense of fear in them by saying “IF YOU DON'T EAT, A MONSTER WILL COME”. Such statements sow the seed of anxiety and fear in a child's mind and consequently, in the future, they try to understand how to get rid of fear and anxiety.
Teachers play a great role in eradicating fear from the minds of children via various activities and story-telling sessions. It is important for teachers to understand that not all fears are the same. Some kids are scared of monsters under their beds while others may be scared of interacting with new friends because they have a phobia of strangers.
In the case of obsessive worrying, a child will fixate on the object of his fear and will talk about it often even when the stimulus to that fear is missing in the current scenario. For example, being anxious months before mathematics class.
Fears put a boundary around the growth and development of a child and he/she cannot participate actively in anything. Something or the other will always remind the kid about the phobia. Excessive fear will give rise to anxiety, disruptive behavior, and the child might want to stay aloof from people.
A teacher will have to take responsibility and speak to the kid to know what exactly is bothering him/her. The root cause of a specific fear must be known to the teacher to diminish it to the fullest. In this process, the teacher might have to interact with the parents as well.
Let's check some common childhood fear:
- Loneliness
- A dark room or night sky
- Dogs or other big animals
- Bugs
- Heights like tall buildings
- Visiting a doctor
- Unfamiliar or loud noises
- Imaginary monsters — the “thing” under the bed, etc.
Teachers must make sure that they are first validating what they are hearing from the kids and then helping them to move on. Kids must be told that whatever is scaring them that's only because it's inside their mind and that does not exist for real.
Suppose a child is scared of the night sky because it is dark. Whenever a teacher comes to know about it he/she must tell the kid that it is okay to be scared since the kid does not have any idea of how beautiful the night sky is. Having said so, the teacher can show him/her pictures of the night sky like the stars or the moon and must explain how much beautiful they are.
Kids often remain anxious and scared because they do not get the ample amount of encouragement or motivation to confront their fear, combat against it, and win the game. All they need is a pat on the shoulder and a master plan that will help them to overcome their phobias.
Teachers have often observed that kids do not have exact words to explain their fear and why they are scared of any specific thing. Over here, teachers have to build a story-telling session displaying a character having the same kind of fear but how he/she is opening up to the teachers and thus, gradually overcoming it.
Such an idea always works and if aided with visual presentation, kids will be engaged in this process and the channel of opening up to the teachers will be smoother. Questioning too much might make them a bit hesitant and hence, certificate in counseling courses for teachers focus more on slow pacing along with tactical approaches. Thus, along with the help of a teacher's counseling methods a kid will be able to get rid of his/her fear magically.