Help Your Toddler Overcome the Fear of the Dark

by Nitin Kumar SEO Expert

Young children often experience fear of unusual things  like ghosts, big animals, insects, etc. One such fear is the fear of darkness. It is a strong emotion that we all face at some point of time in our lives. It is a part of survival mechanism. However, as far as children are concerned they often experience a primitive threat to their existence when they are afraid, says a child psychologist from one of the best preschools in Delhi. 

Generally, children develop the fear of darkness when they are two or three years old. This is the time when their imagination begins to develop; however, they are yet not able to distinguish the imagination from reality. So, the toddlers begin to imagine scary monsters and other apparitions from anything that they dread or look mystical to them and in the dark they are scared. Children behave in various ways when they face such fears, sometimes they just withdraw, and become quiet, others may just act their way out, advice a tenured faculty at one of the top play schools in Delhi. 

As parents, it is our responsibility to make them feel secure and educate them that it is just their imagination and they are safe. Let us find few ways to help your child overcome the fear of darkness, as observed and explained by veteran teachers and child psychologist at best preschools in Delhi: 

1. Tune in to your child feelings:

Always listen to them and their feelings, validate their fears, and suggest that they will attempt to make friends with the darkness. Accompany them to a dark room holding their hands and make them talk to the darkness. It may be not logical, but children of this age just begin to pretend-play, hence this technique work like magic, explains a senior psychologist at one of the play schools in Delhi. 

2. Flashlight games:

Buy a fancy flashlight and hang on to one when you give one to the toddler. You may involve them in flashlight games every evening after dark. You may turn off the lights and play a game which involves finding each other using the flashlight. Your toddler will enjoy playing in the dark and they will soon develop the confidence of experiencing darkness without anxiety, suggests a senior faculty at one of the top preschools in Delhi. 

3. Use the light switch:

Every time they enter the room they can switch the lights on by themselves. So, empower them by showing them where the light switch is. Children of two to three years old are capable of switching the lights on and off by themselves. So, they would be confident enough to enter a dark room by themselves and gain confidence slowly, explains a senior teacher in the best play school in Delhi. 

4. Glow in the dark stickers are fun:

It is another fun way to explore darkness and chase away their fears of darkness. You can put glow in the dark stickers on the walls or on the ceiling and whenever there is darkness in the room they can stare at the stickers. It might work well to soothe their nerves, explains a child psychologist at one of the top play schools in Delhi. 

5. Decorate the room with nice nightlight:

Nightlights are very creative yet beautiful pieces. Children are never comfortable with pitch darkness; neither should they be left alone in rooms with complete darkness. Decorate their rooms and install fancy nightlights and they don’t have to be in dark rooms at night. 

With patience and understanding, we can help our children chase away these childhood fears and overcome such situations. It takes time, patience, and creativity from your side. Even after trying various tricks your child still fear of darkness, it might be worth getting her/ him evaluated by a child psychologist. All the best!

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Created on Dec 27th 2017 00:24. Viewed 551 times.

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