The child is afraid. Is this normal? When watching a child who is afraid of a dog, slide down a slide, climb a tree, or even come into contact with an adult, you can often hear “coward...” And at the same time, the emotion of fear in psychology is considered basic, and it is needed for in order to protect people from emerging threats. The baby is so defenseless that fear is often the only thing he can do to protect himself from adventures on his own head. An interesting fact is that at different age periods you can observe completely different fears in a baby, and this is due to the peculiarities of his development. The older a child gets, the more complex his fears can be observed. Let’s look at this in more detail. With this entry I am opening a series of articles on the topic of children’s fears. How scary! Let’s start, of course, with the little ones and in this article we’ll talk about the fears of children first year of life. So, the baby was born, and, looking at him, it is not at all clear what he can feel, and most importantly, how to express states of discomfort. Adults are accustomed to distinguishing between two extreme states of a baby: a state of comfort (the child is calm) and a state of discomfort (the baby is crying). Meanwhile, already in the first half of the year you can notice a fear reaction in the baby. First of all, the baby reacts to sharp, loud, unpleasant sounds (the sound of a vacuum cleaner, sudden turning on of a water tap, loud music, an unexpectedly broken plate, etc.). In the first year of her life, my daughter could hardly bear the sound of a sofa cushion attached with Velcro being torn off. We also had a soft toy (monkey), the legs of which were fastened with Velcro (to make it easy to hang), and Vika was afraid of it until I tore off the Velcro. There were also difficulties with choosing shoes (the reason is the same). This fear is age-related, and at the end of the first year of her life, my daughter happily began to peel off Velcro herself, showing off her skills. Such a “sound” reaction is quite normal. The baby is not yet able to move independently, he cannot see what is happening around him, and has to navigate the world around him by sound. That is why sharp frightening sounds are perceived as threatening. Fears can also cause sudden movements of others, waving their arms, or attempts to suddenly pick up the child in their arms. At the same time, fear is caused by the action itself, and not by who performs it. In other words, a well-known person can scare a child. So, in the first half of the year it is advisable to: - do not entertain the child by playing with balloons (they burst very loudly); - do not talk to each other in a raised voice; - slightly muffle the sounds of the TV and music; - understand what the baby is afraid of, and try to exclude such moments; - take the baby in your arms and calm him down as soon as you notice that he is afraid (this will give him back a feeling of security and comfort). The fears of the first half of the year are not always obvious, some children are calm about most sounds and movements, or react selectively to them. “Scary guy” In the second half of the year, more complex forms of fear appear, namely fear of strangers. This fear can be very selective and manifest itself in unique ways. A child may be afraid of relatives, especially those to whom he previously smiled joyfully. This makes some adults very upset, but this should not be taken as an attitude towards themselves. This is simply a feature of the baby’s age. Children are often afraid of men and old people. Sometimes the excessive activity of an unfamiliar woman and her attempts to pick up the baby cause a storm of resistance and, of course, fear. I remember a situation on the playground when the baby was afraid of unfamiliar men, recognizing only her father and grandfather. Each time she sought protection from her mother, and the shame for her daughter was clearly visible on her mother’s face. Of course, this made it very difficult for her to surround her daughter with care and protection at that moment. She herself was very tense, which only increased the child’s fear. Under no circumstances should the child be scolded for being scared. It is useless to convince a child to