With Halloween only a few days away, you might be worrying about how your child will react to the scarier aspects of the holiday.
Did that commercial promoting an upcoming monster movie give your son nightmares? Or are you worried the scary costumes others might wear spook him?
Licensed psychologist Suzanne Collins’ kids don’t like Halloween stores, she said, because there are always skeletons and other scary decorations hanging around.
Get to the bottom of the issue
Collins, who works with children and families at Little Psychological Services in Florence, said it’s important to get to the bottom of what’s scaring your child, and then you can help him or her differentiate between rational and irrational thinking on an appropriate level.
“Get them to talk to you about what’s going on,” she said. “See if they can explain it to you.”
Redirect their fears
By affirming their fears – “Gosh, that does look kind of scary but let’s think about how it’s only a costume,” for instance – can help kids shift to a more rational way of thinking.
Collins said she doesn’t often see children for Halloween-related fears in her office. The most common fears she hears about from kids are related to storms and bad weather, test anxiety and separation anxiety.
The advice is the same regardless: Help your child identify the physical symptoms they experience when they’re scared, such as sweaty hands or a quick-beating heart.
Help them control it
“Helping them recognize the connections between their bodies and their minds will help,” Collins said. “Then, you can teach them how to control their anxiety.”
Have your child take three deep breaths and see if his heart stops beating so fast, for example.
“It’s one of the biggest ways to help decrease anxiety, especially in young kids,” Collins said, “by showing them that they can control it.”
