The peculiarities of fears experienced by visually impaired children

Straipsnyje analizuojama 5–7 metų ir 7–11 metų vaikų, turinčių regėjimo sutrikimų, baimės; lyginami vaikų, turinčių regėjimo sutrikimų, baimių ypatumai pagal amžių ir lytį; analizuojamos dažniausiai pasitaikančios baimės mergaičių ir berniukų grupėse; aptariami tyrimo rezultatai lyginant juos su kitų autorių darbais. Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo rezultatai leidžia teigti, kad sutrikusio regėjimo vaikų baimės skiriasi pagal regėjimo sutrikimo laipsnį iri pagal amžių. Taip pat nustatyta, kad mergaitės patiria didesnį baimių skaičių, bijo labiau nei berniukaiChildren's fears are a common problem in the pre-school age because during this period the child's cognitive demands are very strong whereas true-life experience is missing. Children follow 'magic thinking', they are unable to distinguish imagination from reality, they believe that all their thoughts, dreams, and fantasies are real. Thought for a child means action, it is adequate to being. Children's fears most often are irrational. These fears refer to fantasies and not to the real dreadful or terrifying incidents because children mostly think by using images. Disturbance of visual perception determines the cognitive and emotional development peculiarities of a child with sight disorders, and that can influence particularities of fears experienced by visually impaired children. Supposedly, children with sight disorders and blind children experience more disturbing and intimidating situations because of specific perception of their environment. Children with sight disorders experience a certain sensory deprivation, the way of their true-life experience accumulation is specific, they receive less information via visual channel, formation of images of the surrounding world is more difficult, which is very important for cognitive and emotional development during the pre-school period. Therefore, children with sight disorders are more emotionally dependent on adults and are less independent and active (Gudonis, 1996). Thus, these specific conditions create their specific emotional experience and determine differences of fears in children with sight disorders. To help a child to overcome a fear, first of all, it is necessary to understand what s/he is afraid of. A little child informs about it by using words, gestures, and behaviour. Older children sometimes try to hide their fears. Unfortunately, a fear 'hidden inside' does not vanish anywhere. It lowers the child's self-confidence, inhibits from joy (Navaitis, 2006).[...]Socialinių mokslų fakultetasVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠiaulių universiteta