Bump in the Night

How Can You Conquer Common Childhood Fears?

By Mark Stackpole

Like many children, Katelyn Wallace was not really afraid of the dark so much as she was afraid of what might be hiding within it. Now a freshman in high school, the teenager from Manteca, Calif., can look back and remember the importance of her nightlight.

"What scared me most were the mysteries, the possibilities,"Wallace says. "The noises that came through my window ... anything could have been out there. I wanted to turn on the light because I wanted to know what was there. But then I was scared to see whatever it might be."

For her, the worst part was the distorted dance of the shadows as they jumped behind her curtains and sprang from her open closet door. Ironically, Wallace came to realize that her fear had more to do with her nightlight than the dark itself.

"I stopped being afraid when I realized that it was the little bit of light that was causing the shadows," Wallace says. "If it got totally dark, the shadows disappeared. And when my parents turned on all the lights, I could see what was causing the shadows in the first place. I learned that everything was going to be OK."

For most toddlers and preschoolers, such fear of the dark and shadows is common. But childhood fears are not limited to things that go bump in the night, and as adults, we sometimes forget just how scary a place the world can be for our little ones.

"Primary fears are mostly innate and universal: the dark, scary animals from big dogs to little spiders, and hurtful experiences like a trip to the doctor," says Dr. David B. Waters, a psychologist in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Virginia Health Center. "The latter is also a fear which also comes from feeling out of control. 'Something is going to happen to me; it's not good and I can't stop it.' Most of these fears are programmed in for good reason; we do need to guard against certain dangers."

With that in mind, the scariest thing for toddlers and preschoolers is not one of these stereotypical phobias, but rather something much closer to home, literally and figuratively.

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