TODAY.AZ / Society

Lovely tale heroes or fear of kids

14 January 2016 [10:10] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

“Kamran came to a real children's party for the first of his life. Everything around was for him including fun surprises, music and funny clowns. But suddenly I was confronted with a problem, he was not pleased,” said the mother of the two-year-old boy.

Sometimes something that should cheer the baby and bring delight may suddenly frighten him, leading definitely psychological trauma.

In fact, some children are afraid to visit theatrical performances, puppet theaters and circus and cry while seeing puppet characters, clowns and acrobats.

Psychologist Yegana Aliyeva says all children are different and each child has its own peculiarities of perception.

“One kid is ready to rejoice and clap their hands in a strange room with noisy performances being even at the age of two, and another will hide behind his/her mother's back, looking startled and scared of bears in the arena being even four years old,” she said.

Fearing of strange creatures with “tousled hair,” screaming and running all around is quite natural for a baby. This fear, the psychologist claims, in fact indicates good expression of self-preservation instinct, and in any case it does not mean that a child has any problem.

The child, who attends kindergarten, already have an experience with noisy companies, but if the baby is brought up at home, then Aliyeva recommends to prepare a child before going to such places, instead just buying a ticket to the performance.

“Parents themselves feel the age when their child is ready to be acquainted with the circus, but on average, the relevant age is somewhere after two years,” she believes. “At this age, a kid is almost ready to receive the information by virtue of his/her psychological and physiological development.”

Among many children entertainment characters, it’s clown that scared kids more. According to studies conducted by scientists from England, clowns mostly scare children from 4 to 16 years old.

Clowns are supposedly figures of innocent fun with brightly colored jesters to entertain children, which is also the figurehead for McDonald’s fast food, however, the fear of clowns is a fairly common phobia, mainly for children.

The psychologist believes that children's fear may be less because of clowns, but more because of something as unusual - seeming as a clown.

"Children, and adults in general, are typically frightened by things which are strange in some way, strange in a disturbingly unfamiliar way. In addition, their bright clothes of strange shapes and sizes seem like “alien creature” for kids," she said.

Harvard University’s research showed that parental behavior and perception of the world plays an important, but not decisive role in the development of social fears in children.

According to study, heredity is very important factor, since children of young parents are less likely to manifestations of anxiety and alarm, while children of "older" parents (over 35 years) are more anxious and less confident.

Moreover, parents should pay attention to the age limit while choosing performances, as younger children may get a distorted impression of what they see.

Here are some useful tips for parents if your child fears clowns.

To test the response of a child to the clowns or acrobats, watch with him/her some performances on television.

Take the time to explain to your child what a clown and other characters performing in stage. Explain that they are normal persons dressed up with face paint to entertain people.

Don’t force kids, since pushing a child into a situation where he or she is frightened could make their fear even worse. Do not call him a “coward” and do not cite the example of more daring children.

For the first visit of performances, Yegana does not recommend to get tickets for the first row, as a kid can scary of being so close to artists and will not be able to see the whole performance.

“For the first time it’s better to choose a place closer to the exit, so in case of need you can quietly leave the performance,” she said.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/society/146737.html

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