Children’s Phobias

Dr Petra Gwilliam, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist talks exclusively to Flying Start and explains why we develop phobias and what parents can do to help children overcome their fears

What is a Phobia?
Many fears are mild, age-specific and temporary. Although childhood fears are a part of normal development, a significant minority of children have fears that interfere with their functioning.

A common description for this is ‘simple’ or ‘specific’ phobia.

A specific phobia is anxiety associated with a specific object or situation. Your child may avoid the object or situation, or anticipated object or situation with fear, and this cannot be reasoned away, it persists over time and is not age-specific.

The anxiety associated with this object or situation is so great that is interferes with your child’s normal routines and activities. Fears must last for at least six months before they are considered to be phobias, rather than a temporary fear.What Symptoms Might You See?

All children experience symptoms differently when exposed to, or anticipate exposure to, a feared object or situation. Your child may experience physical symptoms such as: increased heart rate; sweating; trembling or shaking; feeling dizzy or faint; upset stomach; and numbness, for example.Common phobias

Specific phobias occur in approximately 5% of the population and in about 15% of children referred to clinical services.

Night-time fears are a normal part of development for most children.

Some children, however, may experience severe night-time fears of much greater intensity and duration, and may meet criteria for an anxiety or phobic disorder diagnosis. Some phobias can be more extensive and persist beyond normal developmental periods.

These include animal phobias such as: dogs; cats; rats and mice; snakes; birds; stinging insects such as wasps and bees; moths; spiders; and other phobias including blood/injury/injections; heights; and enclosed spaces.How Phobias Develop

There are a number of theories that describe the development of a phobia, including those which relate to genetics and the environment. For example, following an acutely distressing experience, your child may associate the ‘threat’ (e.g. dogs) as being connected with a past traumatic event (your child may have felt frightened when a dog jumped up at them at an early age).

Often children will ‘learn’ to be afraid of certain objects or situations due to modelling their parents’ fear and avoidance. If you always jump when you hear a dog bark or cross the road to avoid dogs, your child may have reason to believe that dogs are dangerous and therefore feel anxious, imitating your behaviour.

What Maintains the Phobia?

Just as their development may be determined by a number of variables, phobias are also maintained in several ways. Genetic influences, temperamental predispositions, parents’ anxiety, parenting practices and individual histories can combine to further maintain these difficulties.What Adults Can Do To Help

You may be able to help your child overcome his/her anxiety and address their phobias. If your child has similar fears to you, it may be helpful for you to try and overcome your fears first before working with your child. Graded exposure to a feared situation or object can be a successful method. The goal is to remove the feeling of fear in the presence of the feared situation or object. Your child will be exposed to the feared situation or object until s/he no longer feels anxious, by remaining in the feared situation until they realise that what they fear will not happen. This will normally be done gradually, so that the feared object or situation will not overwhelm your child.

If your child is afraid of dogs, for example, expose him/her to a very low threat situation such as a picture of a dog and then build this up gradually, such as looking at a dog through the window. Keep building on the exposure until your child is able to pass a dog in the street or stroke a friendly dog that you know. The goal is for your child to eventually be able to tolerate closer contact with a dog.

It may be useful to model these behaviours yourself first, so that your child observes you behaving in a confident manner around dogs. Don’t force your child to be closer to a dog than the distance at which s/he feels comfortable.

In addition, relaxation exercises, when your child is anxious, can help them become aware of and reduce bodily tension. Relaxation scripts have been devised to teach beneficial relaxation of eight muscle groups. To maximise the impact of this, exercise sessions should be geared to the needs of your child and not last more than 15 minutes. As with most things, practice makes perfect!

What Should I Do To Get Further Help?

Despite the high level of distress and impairment which can be experienced with a phobia, only a small proportion of people seek professional help. It is important for your child to be thoroughly assessed, which may include information from both you as a parent and from your child.

You may be asked to complete a questionnaire, or a diary to monitor progress; you will be asked a series of questions about the phobia; and your child may be observed. This is nothing to worry about.

Your child should also feel involved in their therapy. Taking responsibility for changing their own behaviour will be important. You, as a parent, will also need to be supportive and encourage your child, as always.

photo Credit to www.nicksspiders.com