Children encounter many scary situations as they develop and, according to Alison Alden from the Anxiety Treatment Center of Greater Chicago, there are ways to identify the early warning signs of anxiety.
Alden uses the example of a child that grows scared when approaching a large dog. The child's natural reaction is to shy away, called behavioral inhibition, and this is the point where intervention is necessary to prevent causing a long-term issue.
Allowing the child to avoid confronting the fear, Alden explains, will only make the issue worse by reinforcing the anxiety in the future. Instead, parents should model behavior that helps them overcome fears such as approaching the dog, petting it, reassuring the child that everything is safe and inviting him to pet the dog himself. Even if the parent is helping by getting involved, the child is still facing their fears and will develop the confidence needed to face new and different situations as they grow.
Popular blog Focus on the Family suggests that two other ways to help a child grow their confidence are to help them own their fears and to identify courage. Owning their fear means acknowledging that the fear exists and admitting that it is a problem. For instance, a child that is scared of the dark could merely say aloud: "I am scared of the dark because I can't see what is out there." A parent can even help at first by saying it with the child at the same time. Once the feelings of fear have been put into words, it allows the child and parent to break it down into what makes it scary in the first place so that they can tackle the actual issue.
Helping a child identify courage means reminding them of a time in which they were brave in the face of danger or a scary situation in the past. If they can do it once, the logic goes, they can do it again by using the same tactics they used the first time. Over time, this strategy continually reinforces itself as there will be more and more memories from which to draw courage.
