Overcoming Your Child’s Fears & Worries by Cathy Crewswell & Lucy Willetts

Phobias, panic attacks, being fearful and worried can make a child’s life a misery and leave parents feeling helpless. A parent might be tempted to dismiss a child’s fear thinking they’ll just grow out of it but some problems can lead to a child having difficulties making friends or even avoiding school. And these problems can become more serious in adulthood. I had a friend who was so phobic about frogs that when her cat brought one into the house she was unable to go into the room – even to get her baby who had woken up crying! This book helps you nip those problems in the bud. It is a self-help guide which uses Cognitive Behavioural Techniques to help you identify the patterns or vicious cycles that you or your child may have got stuck in. It helps you acquire skills and strategies so you can break these cycles or prevent them happening.

The authors use the experiences and case studies of four children aged seven, nine, ten and 11. In Part One you read about the background to their problems and in Part Two learn how their parents helped them to overcome them. Part Three deals with particular problems like difficulties in going to sleep and refusing to go to school as well as how to use the book with younger children and teenagers.

The authors take the parent through the processes in a practical, step-by-step way. They are reassuring throughout and aim to give the parent confidence to help the child. They aim “to assist you in helping your child take control of his or her fears and worries so that they do not get in the way of him or her getting the most out of life.”

Overcoming Your Child’s Fears & Worries is an excellent, well-written book. which will be extremely helpful to many parents.

Dr Cathy Creswell and Dr Lucy Willetts both work at the Child Anxiety Disorders Research Clinic at the University of Reading.

Published by Robinson, to buy from Amazon please click below

Overcoming Your Child's Fears and Worries