An age-by-age guide to kids’ phobias
Photo: iStockphoto
Dawson Penney?s second birthday party started out in typical festive fashion, with cake, games and treats. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary?that is, until party guests showed up with balloons. ?He started screaming,? recalls his mom, Susanne, of Hanmer, Ont. ?We thought he was joking at first.?
But it was no joke. Penney says her son was ?deathly afraid? of balloons for the next 2½ years. Whenever he saw the offending inflatables, ?he would run and hide, scream and cry.? If he was invited to a party, his parents had to ask that all balloons be put away first.
Extreme behaviour like this can be baffling to a parent, who may wonder what on earth is going on. ?We all have fears,? points out Doug Symons, a child clinical psychologist at Acadia University in Wolfville, NS. ?When they?re excessive and begin to interfere with your life, we define them as phobias.? About one in 30 kids will develop a bona fide phobia that fits the official diagnostic criteria. Phobias are persistent?lasting several months, not just a day or two?and they can compromise some everyday activities such as playing, going to the park or shopping. Phobias can develop at almost any age. And they can be long-lasting: Many children who are afraid of spiders continue to battle an arachnid aversion as adults 30 years later.
There?s an evolutionary explanation behind many types of strong fears. It stands to reason that prehistoric preschoolers who were terrified of big animals, deep water a...
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