Consultation on the topic: Children's fears. Drawing will help

Drawing, like play, is not only a reflection of the surrounding reality in the minds of children, but also its modeling, an expression of attitude towards it. Therefore, through the drawings, you can better understand the interests of children, their deep, not always disclosed experiences and take this into account when eliminating fears.

By drawing, the child gives vent to his feelings and experiences, desires and dreams, rebuilds his relationships in various situations and painlessly comes into contact with some frightening, unpleasant and traumatic images.

First of all, through drawing, it is possible to eliminate fears generated by the imagination, that is, something that has never happened, but can happen in the child's mind. Then, according to the degree of success, there are fears based on real traumatic events, but that happened a long time ago and left an emotional mark that is not very pronounced by now in the child's memory.

The best results from drawing fears are achieved at the age of 5-11, at the age of an active interest in drawing.

Most fears are due to one degree or another age characteristics and are temporary in nature, but, nevertheless, they require each time close attention and study from adults, then a number of appropriate measures can be taken in a timely manner and prevent their excessive growth, transition in adolescence to more or less stable traits individuals who interfere with a full-fledged lifestyle and communication.

Of course, it is best for a psychologist to work with fears, because there are certain nuances that must be taken into account and not missed. But, if you have confidence that you can cope on your own and, most importantly, there is trust and contact with the child, then you can try to eliminate them yourself at home. A positive result and terms depend on many factors, the main one being what kind of fear the child has and its duration.

Who and how gives the task to draw fear

This is one of the very important points in drawing. childhood fear... If the parents do decide to start drawing themselves, then a friendly attitude is very necessary.

The less strict and restrictive parents are in raising children, the more successful they are at drawing fears, while excessive severity and ubiquitous prohibitions can reduce its effect from fear of not living up to parents' expectations, drawing badly or not drawing at all.

A parent should not condemn for the presence of fears or read instructions, urge to pull himself together, show will, etc. It is important that the child feels trust and absolute acceptance. You need to be consistent in your judgments and confident in your actions and deeds. A prerequisite is the belief in the effectiveness of the applied method of eliminating fears.

If you know what fears bother your baby, then you can go to work, if not, then you need to identify what exactly bothers the baby.

How to detect fears in children

You can detect fears in children by inviting them to play on their own. Props for the game can be very diverse: a house made of cubes, in it a bed, a table, a wardrobe, a small house in which various animals live, Christmas trees imitating a forest, a broom left by Baba Yaga, a drum, a tank, a cannon, a robot, rag dolls put on on hand, ordinary dolls depicting people, animals and fairy-tale characters, medical supplies, etc.

The child's attitude towards them will reveal those fears that have been forgotten or hidden. Stiffness, unnatural behavior, tension speak of both inability to play and fear, which is expressed by appropriate facial expressions and avoidance of various characters or objects in the game. For example, a child willingly puts a fox and a bunny on his hands, but not only does not notice the same toy wolf, but also categorically refuses to include it in the game, which is explained by the fear of this character. Stopping play in the absence of an adult indicates fear of loneliness, etc.

After the game, you can talk with the child, with the goal of identifying fears.

You can start asking about fears from preschoolers in the process of the game itself, as if by the way, interspersed questions into the game pauses. It is necessary to be near the playing child, squatting down, if it is Small child... The main thing is to be calm and not to make emotional or semantic accents in the pronunciation of certain words, not to instill fear with the phrase: "Tell me, are you afraid ...", and they ask: "Tell me how you feel about ...", - and are waiting for an answer. After a short pause, they move on to clarifying the next fear.

Drawing fears

After the fears have become known, you need to organize their drawing. Fears are drawn with pencils, felt-tip pens, or paints. The most important thing is that children are given the opportunity to choose, which makes the drawing procedure itself easier.

Households should be warned about the inadmissibility of interrupting drawing.

Tell: "Draw what you fear, each fear on a separate sheet."... If a child has questions about how to draw fear, then he can be explained. For example, the fear of loneliness - draw yourself and at the same time everything that you are afraid of when you are left alone (that is, the child materializes his fears and fears). Usually, the fear of attack is reproduced in the form of aggressive adults. The fear of getting sick or getting infected is represented by the hospital or germs. Fear of the dark is usually a slightly shaded room where the impartial characters of the child's fantasy manifest themselves. Fears of animals are drawn for each of them separately. This also applies to fairy-tale characters etc.

There is no need to promise that this will necessarily relieve fears, as heightened expectations for results can act as an obstacle to overcoming fears. It is best to say that drawing fears will help to overcome them and that it does not matter how they will be depicted, the main thing is to draw them all, without exception, each fear on a separate sheet. It is better to draw completely independently, without the help of adults.

The very fact of receiving a task in this way organizes the activities of children and mobilizes them to fight their fears.

It is not easy to start drawing fears. It often takes several days for the child to decide to begin the assignment. This is how the internal psychological barrier is overcome - the fear of fear.

To decide to draw means to come into direct contact with fear, to meet it face to face and with a purposeful, volitional effort to keep it in memory until it is depicted in the drawing. At the same time, the awareness of the conventionality of the depiction of fear in the drawing already in itself helps to reduce its traumatic sound. In the process of drawing, the object of fear no longer represents a frozen mental formation, since it is consciously manipulated and creatively transformed as artistic image... The interest that manifests itself in drawing gradually extinguishes the emotion of fear, replacing it with volitional concentration and satisfaction from the completed task. Invisible support is also provided by the very fact of the participation of a parent or a psychologist who gave this task, to whom you can then entrust your drawings and thereby, as it were, free yourself from the fears depicted on them.

After some time, you can show the child his drawing and ask him to tell what is drawn on it. Better to start with more easily removable fears - water, open space, type of blood (in boys), doctors, diseases, bad dreams and animals (in girls).

It is good if all family members are present, the drawing is shown to them, while the child talks about what is shown in the picture, that is, he concretizes his fear. Previously, this was difficult to implement, fear arose from only one idea and could not be expressed in words. Such an obstacle only increased internal tension and kept fear in a fixed state.

Now the child speaks freely enough about fear, consciously controlling it in a conversation with a person whom he trusts and who can understand his feelings. It is important not to be shy and say everything as it is, fear will still be eliminated - if not by drawings, then by other means.

If not all drawings have a positive effect, then the drawing can be put aside without comment or accompanied by the words: "Nothing", "Everything has its time", "Move on", "We'll come back to him later" etc.

After the discussion of fears is over, those pictures are named and shown in relation to which a positive effect has been achieved. The author must be praised, a friendly pat on the shoulder, shake hands, and give a toy. And then it must be said that the drawings with his former fears will be "kept" in a drawer of a desk or closet, "closed" there forever, like a genie in a bottle.

After some time (1-2 weeks), you can again return to these drawings, but with the words: "Now draw so that you can see that you are not afraid."... This implies that you need to draw not only the object of fear, as the first time, but also necessarily not afraid of yourself. For example, it is not the child who runs away from Baba Yaga, but she from him; he no longer cries from pain; fights with the Dragon; floats on water and flies on an airplane. The effect of suggestion is obvious here - an attitude to overcome fear in the imagination by means of its definite, given graphic image. There is a mobilization of all the child's mental resources to actively counteract fears in the life-affirming, active position of the Creator. The phenomenon of group support also works. The child is no longer alone with their fears - they came out, lost their halo of exclusivity, and even faded after their previous image. In addition, parents create a mentally supportive field of support and belief in his ability to cope with fears.

The question arises: is it possible to immediately invite children to draw themselves as if they were not afraid, to save, so to speak, time? Yes, you can, but the effect will be lower and not as persistent. It takes time for the child to overcome the internal psychological barrier of insecurity and fear of his fears, then a gradual deactualization of fear in his mind will occur and faith in his own strengths, capabilities, and abilities will develop.

Good luck, parents, in helping your children!

How to draw emotions. Emotions in a portrait in pencil

In this lesson, we will look at how a person's face will change to express various emotions. When expressing wounded emotions, the look changes, the pupils (narrow or widen), the ears rise, the lips stretch in a smile or, on the contrary, narrow, and so on :) Below are the stages of writing a portrait of a person filled with such emotions as happiness, fear, contempt or hatred, anger or anger

How to draw fear, how to draw fear with a pencil.

We start drawing with an axial thin line, immediately determine the dimensions of the head.

Divide the centerline into three equal parts

With light lines, we define the tip of the nose, the direction of the eyebrows, the curvature of the eyes.

Using shading, draw eyebrows, pupils. My eyes will be slightly widened (from fear :)

Sculpt the shape of the nose using shading

We draw hair and ears for our character, apply shading to them

We draw a mouth, which will be skewed, thereby the emotion of fear will be transmitted. When a person is afraid of something, a crease forms between the eyebrows. We apply shading to the entire surface of our drawing. Everyone, a frightened person is looking at you from the image

how to draw happiness on a person's face

We start the drawing by drawing an axial thin line with a pencil, we determine the dimensions of the head

We divide the center line into three equal parts as in the previous stage.

Define the shape of the head with a light line

Without pressing the pencil strongly, draw the eyebrows, nose, determine the shape of the eyes

Using shading, draw eyebrows, pupils. The eyes will be as narrowed as possible. When a person smiles, wrinkles form around

We draw a mouth, slightly noticeable dimples will appear on the cheeks, pronounced cheeks will appear. We draw the ears. With the help of shading, we sculpt our entire head.

Add a hairstyle to our character, dress him up. Our drawing is ready.

How to draw contempt, arrogance

As always, start with the centerline. We immediately determine the dimensions of the model's head.

We divide the center line into three equal parts. This will be the level of the eyebrows and nose.

Draw a head outline with a pencil

We draw a nose and eyebrows, outline a neck with a collar

We draw the eyes. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the eye shape will be slightly narrowed. Immediately apply shading to the gas, our drawing will begin to come to life.

We outline the folds around the eyes. Because when a person squints, he gets a lot of folds. We draw a mouth with slightly visible teeth. We outline the chin.

How to draw hair and ears for our character

The final stage is we apply shading to the entire surface of our drawing, the places where the shadow passes, we apply shading more intensively. Our drawing is ready.

How to draw anger, anger in a portrait

We draw the centerline where our head will be located

Divide the axis into three parts with a pencil. The parts must be equal

We define the tip of the nose with light lines. Draw the eyebrows using shading. The most important part of the face in this emotion is the eyebrows. They will have sharp outlines.

We draw the eyes. The eyebrows will hang over the eyes. Using shading to show the shape of the nose

Draw hair and ears.

We draw a mouth. The upper lip will hardly be visible. The mouth will be compressed as much as possible. We apply shading. Our drawing is ready.

All drawing is ready! In front of you is a man in anger drawn with a pencil

Age fears

Age fears appear in certain time and in the same way, at a certain time, they come to naught. For example, before seven months of age children are afraid of harsh, loud sounds as well as strangers.

From 7 months to 3 or more years many kids are afraid to part with their mother, often reacting violently to her absences.

3 years- the age when the child has fears of Baba Yaga, By the gray wolf, Koshcheem the immortal, Babay and other monsters that keep many generations of young children at bay. Such fears are especially strong among impressionable children who have a rich imagination, as well as among those who too often hear from their parents: “If you are a hooligan, Leshy will take it!”; "Don't make a noise, otherwise the uncle policeman will take you with him!" and other horror stories.

V 5-6 years old children usually begin to realize that people are mortal, and this discovery can also provoke the emergence of all kinds of fears: for loved ones or their own life.

And finally, with enrollment in school at little man new reasons for anxiety and new fears appear: being late for class, getting a "deuce", and so on.

Why fears arise

Of course, in addition to age-related fears that pass over time, there are individual fears. They can be triggered by a specific incident that happened to a child (frightened by a dog, got stuck in an elevator, saw a fire in the house opposite ...). And they can arise due to the excessive anxiety of the parents, who now and then warn the baby: "Put on a hood, otherwise you will catch a cold in your head and become a fool"; "Do not touch the cat, otherwise you will catch a terrible disease!"

There are other reasons for the emergence of children's fears, for example, children whose parents are constantly in conflict are more prone to anxiety and fear than children growing up in a safe environment.

And sometimes a child's fear of something hides a lack of attention from adults. A child experiencing a lack of communication with parents, not receiving enough affection and support, may say that he is afraid of “the one who sits in the closet,” unconsciously hoping that mom or dad will regret, hug, calm down, become closer ...

Finally, don't be discounted and individual characteristics every little person: anxious, sensitive, impressionable children have fears more than balanced and not characterized by increased anxiety.

Drawing fear

Drawing fear is one of the most right ways defeat him. For work we need: colored pencils, paints, pastel crayons, felt-tip pens, markers - which is more to our liking - and a sheet of paper. If, when asked to draw fear, your child replies that he does not want to or does not know how to do it - you should not force and coerce him, try to cheer him up better: “And you try, I believe that you will definitely succeed! You start, and I will help you. " And really help - just let the kid lead, explain, guide you. At the same time, do not forget that the child must do most of the work himself.

Next, when the drawing is ready, talk to your child about his fear - ask why he is afraid of him. Ask other questions: where does fear live, where did it come from, what color it is, what it looks like ... And, finally, how can you defeat it? What is he (fear) afraid of more than anything else? Further - according to the circumstances: if the fear drawn by the child is afraid, for example, of fire - a leaf with its image can be solemnly burned on a metal tray. And if - water, then it can be sent to long voyage through the sewage system, having previously flushed it into the toilet. Fear can be ripped out, cut into small pieces with scissors, made into an airplane and released out the window.

But you can do it differently. After the child has drawn his fear, invite him to use the same pencils and paints to turn it into something safe, not scary at all, and maybe even funny. If your kid is afraid of a dog or a wolf - let him "send" the terrible animal into a cage with a heavy lock, drawing both. If he is afraid of a tiger from a wall calendar (it also happens) - let him depict a trainer next to a striped predator who can curb him. Koshchei Immortal can be “dressed up” in a buffoon's cap, pink slippers with pompoms and, to top it off, put on a pot. In such a comical form, the evil character will immediately lose his supernatural power... Finally, the child can draw himself conquering his fear, not afraid of this or that situation.

In addition, fear can be sculpted from plasticine, and then transformed into something non-threatening, pathetic or funny - sculpt Barmaley a piglet and a perky pink tail, decorate his head with a red bow with white polka dots. You can also play a disturbing situation with a child, compose a fairy tale, the hero of which is also afraid of something at first, but, in the end, wins over his fear, finds a way out of the current situation.

If you haven't been able to tackle the problem in one go, don't despair. Return to the disturbing situation over and over again, each time coming up with new ways to deal with fear. Strive to ensure that this process is interesting to the child, evokes positive emotions in him, amuses and cheers up. If you feel that the baby's fear is very strong, and you cannot cope with it at home, contact a child psychologist.

Drawing is a kind of indirect reflection of the surrounding world through the eyes of a child. After examining a child's drawing, you can understand a lot. For example, the color scheme, that is, the colors arbitrarily chosen by the child to decorate the picture, speak of his worldview. As a rule, children living under the influence of fear tend to use gray, black and dark brown tones in their drawings. It is in these tones when speaking figurative language, colored their life.

Drawing fears can help a child get rid of them. However, one should not think that it will be enough just to ask the child to draw his fear, and he will certainly do it.

In most cases, the children's reaction to such a request is sharply negative. And this is not surprising - the child is afraid to even think about what scares him so. And to draw on paper means for him to embody fear in life, to give him some form, appearance. Therefore, you should not force the child to paint his fear forcibly and scold him for stubbornness if he refuses to do so. It is better to leave this request for the time being, and then return to it again.

If the child agreed and drew his fear, it means that he was able to overcome the internal barrier. The fear shown in the picture is for the child already its almost real embodiment. Exclusively important point at this stage is the following.

It is necessary that the child draws all his fears. An incomplete representation of fears nullifies the effectiveness of the method.

A child may ask an adult how to draw fear. You can tell, but in the most general outline- so that the visual embodiment of a child's fantasy is not influenced by the subjectivism of an adult. For example, if a child asks how to draw Baba Yaga, you should answer: "Draw her as you see!" "And how do I see her? - the child may ask. - What is her face, nose?" Answer something like this: "Draw a large crochet nose and big teeth." The adult, therefore, does not impose his idea on the child, but only pushes him to ensure that his own representation of the image is more clearly reflected in consciousness.

After the drawings (or drawing) are ready, the adult should discuss them with the child. Looking through the drawings made together, you need to ask the child whether he is afraid now or not. By carefully observing the voice and expression on the child's face, you can understand how sincerely he speaks. The denial of fear must be reinforced with praise. In the event that some of the fears remain, you should separately disassemble those drawings that depict frightening characters. An adult, together with a child, may try to find some funny or funny features in the drawing - this is how the image in the drawing associated with the real image of the threat acquires funny features in the child's mind and becomes less threatening or completely loses its frightening symbolism.

In the event that funny features cannot be found, you should not invent them. Instead, ask your child to tear up the drawing by throwing the pieces out the window or into the trash can. By destroying the drawn villain, you will help the child overcome fear. "Now he's gone!" - tell the child and praise him for destroying the villain by tearing up the drawing.

When discussing a drawing with a child, it is extremely important not to say the words "drawing", "drawn villain" etc. Question: "Where is Baba Yaga drawn here?" replace with the question: "Where is Baba Yaga? Aha, here she is!"

Help the child to identify the drawing and the image of the villain - in this case, by tearing the drawing, destroying it or laughing at it, the child can easily get rid of the fear.

The remaining fears after some time should be portrayed again, but the attitude to this fear should be somewhat different. You should ask the child to draw "how he is not afraid of his fear" - that is, the drawing should now include not only the object of childhood fear, but also the child himself, and in an active position of resistance to evil. This attitude is extremely important, since on a subconscious level it acts as an additional stimulus to overcome fear. A child, drawing himself in an active position of resistance to evil, automatically fixes his image in the subconscious as the image of the victor over evil. Studies show that after the second stage of drawing, fear remains in only 10-15 percent of children.

Drawing fears

Drawing is a creative act that allows children to feel the joy of accomplishment, their ability to act, be themselves, freely express their feelings and experiences, dreams and hopes. Drawing, like play, is not only a reflection in the minds of children of the surrounding social reality, but also its modeling, an expression of attitude towards it. Therefore, through the drawings, you can better understand the interests of children, their deep, not always disclosed experiences and take this into account when eliminating fears. Drawing provides a natural opportunity for development, flexibility and plasticity of thinking. Indeed, children who love to draw are distinguished by greater imagination, spontaneity in expressing feelings and flexibility of judgment. They can easily imagine themselves in the place of this or that person and express their attitude towards him, since this happens every time in the process of drawing.

The desire to draw is inherent in older children preschool age... It testifies to the development figurative thinking and the need to express yourself. The study of drawings allows you to better understand the interests, hobbies of children, the peculiarities of their temperament, experiences inner peace... The very predominance of gray tones and the predominance of black in the drawings emphasizes the lack of cheerfulness, the lowered background of mood, a large number of fears that the child cannot cope with. On the contrary, bright, light and saturated colors for active vitality and optimism. Wide strokes when painting with paints, the scale, the absence of preliminary sketches and subsequent additions that change the original plot show confidence and decisiveness. Increased excitability and especially hyperactivity find their expression in the instability of the image, its blurred or a large number distinct but intersecting lines. With lethargy and even more anxiety, children draw little, preferring other types of activity.

Through drawing, it is possible to eliminate the fears generated by the imagination, that is, something that never happened, but can happen in the child's mind. Then, according to the degree of success, there are fears based on real traumatic events, but that happened a long time ago and left a not very pronounced emotional mark in the child's memory by now.

There is no need to be afraid of some revival of fears that occurs in the process of drawing, since this is one of the conditions for their complete elimination. It is much worse if they remain smoldering in the psyche, ready to erupt at any moment. But this does not mean that it is necessary, by all means, to knock them out, which is called a stick from the carpet. Often this is carried away by parents who, by their more than decisive behavior, cause fear in children. Then, instead of helping to eliminate fears, they achieve the opposite effect, not admitting their mistakes and blaming the children for not wanting to go to the meeting.

Of particular value is drawing in a group on the following topics, offered in turn at each lesson: “In kindergarten"," On the street, in the yard "," At home "," Family "," What is terrible for me "(or" What am I afraid of during the day ")," What was bad with me "(good)," Who I want to become ".

When drawing, it is best to use colored pencils first. A month before, you can ask the children to bring their own drawings so that some of them can be shown in the group. The purpose of this event is to stimulate interest in drawing at home. His absence impoverishes mental development children and indicates the presence of some difficulties in him.

The themes for drawing in the first two lessons are chosen by the children themselves. These can be houses, cars, trees. Then midges, a dog, a bird, a person, etc. Children themselves choose with whom they will sit, at the tables, and this already reveals their likes and dislikes.

Subsequent after preparatory sessions you can start a thematic drawing. If one of the children refuses to draw, you should not fixate on this, as well as emphasize the success of others.

In the drawing on the theme "In kindergarten", the mutual arrangement of the figures of peers and the author of the drawing is of interest. Children with hysterical traits, regardless of their actual situation, usually draw themselves in the center of the group. Children with neurotic reactions in the picture have few or no peers, which reflects the problems of relationships with them. The same applies to the picture "On the street, in the yard", indicating difficulties in acquiring stable friendships and excessive care in the family.

The most informative is the picture on the theme "Family". Unlike the previous one, instructions are given to draw everyone with whom the child lives. When analyzing, one should take into account not only the possibility of objectively reflecting the family situation, but also the attitude towards it to change in a direction favorable to the child.

The topic "What is terrible for me in my dreams" or "What am I afraid of during the day" makes it possible to display the most bright fear... What kind of fear is not explained by education, and each of the children must choose it himself. The drawing itself is not obligatory, especially if fears are denied altogether. If the drawing is made, it means that the child was able to overcome the barrier of fear in his mind and reflect with a strong-willed, purposeful effort what he even avoided thinking about. Graphic image fear does not lead to its strengthening, but, on the contrary, reduces the tension from the anxious expectation of its realization in the drawing, fear has already been largely realized as something that has already happened and actually happened. Thus, there is less unsaid, unclear, indefinite, and together this contributes to the loss of the spectacularly traumatic sound of fear in the child's psyche. It is also important that the lesson takes place in a cheerful atmosphere of communication with peers, providing invisible support from them, not to mention the approval of the teacher himself.

The topic "What happened to me the worst or the best" is an opportunity to choose the events that happened to the children, most of them prefer to display in the picture good, joyful episodes from their lives. Nevertheless, in almost every group there are several children drawing unpleasant events, which can serve as the basis for the subsequent, psychotherapeutic orientation of children in their abilities.

“What I Want to Become” - the final section thematic drawing in a group, bringing an optimistic stream into it and helping to increase children's confidence in their abilities.

The duration of specially designated lessons does not exceed 30 minutes. In one lesson, as a rule, several fears are drawn, but only one fear can be drawn. In no case should you rush a child to complete the task, since thoughts about how to portray fear imply a meeting with him, contact, contact, which in itself reduces the acuity of his perception. With an average number of fears, it is necessary to carry out, respectively, 4 - 6 lessons. Paint better with paints or felt-tip pens (colored).

Some children cannot start drawing for a long time, constantly asking "How?" - what reflects their uncertainty and anxious - suspicious attitude. You can then, imperceptibly for other children, suggest how to draw fear, but in the most general terms. As a rule, only the beginning is difficult, which is overcome. When drawing, the theme of death is excluded, since they are very difficult as abstract categories.

After a few days, a discussion of the drawings is held, of course, it is easier to conduct it with all the children, but due to the development of the imitation effect in the group, most children will unconditionally agree with everyone that they have no fears, which does not always correspond to reality. Therefore, the discussion is carried out with each of them separately.

The remaining fears are proposed to be drawn again, but so that in the drawings the child portrays himself as not afraid.

The persistent nature of fears indicates an underlying high level restlessness (anxiety), obsessive tone, reduced vitality, absence and alertness. The effect of overcoming fears is worse in children from single-parent families, children whose parents are in conflict with each other, are sick with neuroses or are burdened with anxious suspiciousness and chronic somatic diseases.

It should also be noted that if the family is not complete different reasons, then the effect of drawing fears is less pronounced due to the absence of a father who historically protected the family from external danger. But also in full family the effect of painting fears can be undermined by conflicts between parents, especially if they are not inclined to admit that they exist. The presence of constant and unpredictable threats to family well-being, or, in other words, a lack of a sense of security and confidence in strength family relations increases the number of fears in children. In addition, fears come to life again, since the negative emotional atmosphere in the family does not change. Therefore, no matter what efforts the conflicting parents make to eliminate children's fears through drawing, the result is always the same: 4 - 5 times worse than in other families. Still not a sufficient effect from drawing fears is observed when this or that frightening event, for example, a dog bite, beating, etc. was recently, then it is more appropriate to use games.

Thus, it can be seen that drawing, as well as sculpting children's fears, is used mainly in older and preparatory years for school. This helps to more accurately identify the presence of fears in children with different levels of intellectual development.