Didaskaleinophobia - fear of school in a child, symptoms and treatment

Causes of didaskaleinophobia

Fear of school rarely develops due to psychological trauma alone. More often the influence is exerted by chronic stress, systematic exposure to one or more negative factors.

What are the negative factors (prerequisites for fear of going to school):

bullying by classmates (bullying);
conflicts with teachers;
frequent conflicts with classmates;
the position of an outcast;
increased physical and intellectual stress;
the severity and pressure of teachers;
severity and punishment from parents (due to problems at school);
other discomfort within the walls of the school or on the way to it (cold, poor nutrition, a section of the road with angry dogs, etc.).

Non-standard reasons include fear for loved ones, which is more common in dysfunctional families. The child worries that while he is at school, something bad will happen to family members or pets at home.

It is important! Didaskaleinophobia may hide other school fears, such as fear of assessment or fear of public speaking. Or fear of communication, social interaction. Sometimes the parents' fears about school are passed on to the student.

Possible reasons

If a child is afraid of school, it means something happened in his life that provoked such a phobia. The opinion of parents who believe that fear can develop after stress that occurs once is erroneous. In fact, it takes long-term exposure to negative factors to form a serious phobia.

The main reasons for the development of such fear include:

regular bullying from peers, which is in no way stopped by the teaching staff,
intimidation and constant threats by older children,
cruel bullying, pranks aimed at a child,
severe mental or physical stress, which is incommensurate with the student’s capabilities,
psychological pressure on teachers.

In rare cases, fear is based on worries about parents. The kid is worried that something will happen to them while he is in class. More often, this reason can be observed in children who did not attend kindergarten and did not part with their parents for a long period.

Manifestation of fear of school

You can notice psychosomatic manifestations of phobia:

feeling of suffocation;
breathing problems;
tachycardia and arrhythmia;
increased sweating;
shiver;
dizziness and headache;
weakness in the legs;
muscle pain and tension;
chest pain;
fainting;
dyspepsia;
numbness or hyperactivity (during the attack);
attention disorder and other cognitive impairment;
inappropriate reactions (crying or screaming, aggression);
nervousness, chaotic movements of the hands or nervous walking from side to side, swaying.

The main psychological symptom is fear of a recurrence of the attack. The older the child is and the more often the attacks occur, the greater the fear of going crazy, being embarrassed, or being ridiculed.

Treatment of a phobic condition

In order to eradicate fear of school, first of all you need to talk with the child and try to achieve a trusting relationship with him. But it is not always possible for a student to explain what exactly frightens him or to independently understand the cause of his fear. This is especially true for children in primary school.

In this case, it will be useful to contact a child psychologist. By regularly attending psychotherapist sessions, it will be easier for the child to understand the cause of fear. The specialist will explain to the student how to act correctly in cases where peers offend him, humiliate him and bully him. The child will learn how to properly resolve such conflicts and avoid them in the future. In parallel with psychological training, the doctor may also prescribe the following treatment:

Medicines. Children are usually prescribed special antidepressants that are appropriate for their age, or sedatives.
Exercise therapy and a course of exercises to get rid of fear.
Massage and physiotherapy.
Playing sports. Physical activity has a positive effect on developing self-confidence and increasing self-esteem.

How to get rid of, stop being afraid of school

Children cannot always name the exact reason for their fear. The younger the child, the more difficult it is for him to express his feelings. Therefore, for diagnosis and treatment, it is recommended to consult a psychologist.

Help from a psychologist

During conversations, the psychologist finds out the causes of fear, draws up a correction plan, helps the child change his attitude towards problems and develop a new behavior strategy. The treatment of children uses art therapy, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy and parental assistance.

Art therapy

Art therapy helps both to find out the cause of the phobia and to get rid of fear. It is better to entrust the diagnosis to a psychologist. Only a specialist will be able to correctly interpret a student’s free drawing. But you can treat fear yourself. To do this, you need to invite the student to depict his fear of school. Then offer to make fun of the fear. You can add bright colors and fun elements. Or you can draw heroes (the child himself) who overcomes his fear of school.

It is important! Art therapy methods (drawing, modeling, singing, dancing, theater) are recommended to be used when working with children of primary school age. When working with adolescents, it is better to use conversation and cognitive behavioral psychotherapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy

Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy helps to find negative attitudes and change attitudes towards them. The psychologist asks the student a number of questions:

What happens if you go to school?
Why are you afraid of your classmates?
What happens if you are poorly prepared for lessons?
What happens if you get a bad grade?
Who told you, or why did you decide, that school is a dangerous place?
Why are you worried about your parents while you are at school?

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy involves individual sessions (conversations) with a psychologist and homework, which are then also discussed during the sessions.

Examples of homework:

meet two peers this week;
prepare for lessons independently and get five points;
do something to earn the respect of classmates;
take part in a school event;
Create a positive morning ritual with your parents.

Tasks should not be a burden; the student should perceive them as a game. You cannot force a young client, you need to interest him.

Parental help

In a calm tone, without coercion, try to find out what exactly frightens and worries the child. Take an interest in your child's relationships with peers and teachers. You cannot make fun of a child’s fears; you need to take them seriously and discuss it with your child.

What else should parents do:

Tell your child about the benefits of school and the importance of education. Remember your school years, tell us about how you had fun with your peers, what subject you liked. But don’t forget to talk about the difficulties and your experience of overcoming them. Say that you are always ready to help.
Take an interest in your child's progress every day. Moreover, talk not only about academic performance, but also about relationships within the school walls.
Answer all your child’s questions and always give him your attention.

Opinions

Now let's think about where this very motivational readiness of a child begins? It seems that most parents have already guessed: it begins with the child’s love for himself, with his belief in the possibility of being better, with his desire for perfection. Of course, your student may not yet understand such words, but you, his parents, understand their meaning well.

If self-esteem is high, then it already allows the child to overcome difficulties on his own. It’s not for nothing that self-esteem is deservedly considered one of the most important mechanisms of self-regulation. It depends on it whether the child will consider himself successful or classify himself as a failure.

It is generally accepted that the formation of fairly stable self-esteem as such occurs at the age of 5-6 years. If at this age we form in our child the foundations of adequate self-esteem, then this ability will help to overcome possible life difficulties, in particular school ones.

But here certain difficulties may await us. And indeed, how can parents help their child in this matter if their self-esteem is quite low? Is it possible to give someone something that you don’t have yourself? Is it possible to give a child high self-esteem if the parents themselves are deprived of it, or if they have it quite low?

For some reason, many people answer questions about their own self-esteem positively. In my opinion, this is the same logical error and even a trap. In order not to discuss further, I can answer unequivocally: “No one can do it!” If you want your child to have a fairly high personal self-esteem, always start with yourself.

Now let's move on to the child's motivational motives.

What exactly influences a child’s desire to go to school and learn? How to increase interest and positive attitude towards learning and school? Of course, you first need to find out the reasons for the lack of interest in learning at school. There may be several of them. Quite often this is a fear of school itself. This fear can be voluntarily or involuntarily formed by the parents themselves, both by their behavior, and by their conversations, and by overloading the child with the very preparation for school, and by the child’s fatigue from all such fuss. Fear can be caused by the negative example of older brothers and sisters - schoolchildren.

Parents should definitely find out which motives for studying at school are negative for their child, and which are positive and adaptive, and which of them dominate their student.

It seems to me appropriate for parents to place the main emphasis in the development of emotional-volitional readiness for school on instilling in the child the motives for achieving the goal: not to be afraid of difficulties, the desire to overcome them and not give up on the intended goal. It's really really difficult. This cannot be achieved in one day. It's hard work every day. Pressuring and forcing to study is possible, but most often this is a dead-end option, which sooner or later will lead to failure, and at the same time to the alienation of parents and children, but obviously in no way will increase interest in learning.

It is very important for parents to always maintain their child’s interest in everything new, answer his questions, and provide new information even about familiar subjects. This means that parents not only help their child grow spiritually and morally, but also learn new things themselves. This requires both time and desire.

Reading fiction, looking at paintings, listening to music, and going to exhibitions together are also great for this. And, of course, the widespread use of examples from fairy tales, stories, plays, performances, etc., i.e., everything that the child already knows.

And if such activities with a child are perceived by parents as joy and pleasure from the communication process, and not as hard work, then such parents can truly make friends with their child, better understand his worries, worries, fears and fears and help overcome them. And we must also remember that in our time there is a good real opportunity for timely consultation with professional psychologists.

Although it is believed that the self-esteem of most children becomes stable during the period of schooling, it largely and for quite a long time depends on the opinions and statements about him by adults - parents, his close adults, older brothers and sisters, teachers.

If they allow themselves to speak incorrectly about the child’s abilities or inabilities, call names and humiliate the dignity of the little person, doesn’t this lower the child’s self-esteem? Of course, an adult is always smarter, more experienced, and wiser than a child. When demonstrating to a child his inadequacy in something, remember, do you yourself really understand everything in the world, know everything and understand everything? If you admit to yourself that you don’t, you will also understand that your child can learn everything with age, just like you yourself, but this requires your patience and time.

The anxiety of many mothers about possible future school problems infects the child, instills in him fear of school, and reduces self-esteem. Agree that this clearly does not help the student overcome learning difficulties. And if the child himself is also an anxious person, can you imagine how difficult it will be for him to cope with your anxiety?

On the path of a child’s progress towards educational success, it is important not only to increase his personal self-esteem, but also to help him overcome anxiety. And this, probably, can always be achieved through the joint efforts of parents, teachers, psychologists and psychotherapists.

We must understand well that an anxious child with low self-esteem and lacking self-confidence cannot simply be scolded for mistakes, failures, or compared with more successful children.

On the contrary, you need to show the child what he already knows and what he has achieved, and then move on to what he will have to do in order to achieve even greater success.

Now think, is such parental work possible without patience and love?

Thus, we come to the most important question of how to help a child in his school affairs. And we understand that the main thing is the sincere love of the parents for him. Remember that children intuitively sense the slightest falsity in a relationship. They can pretend skillfully on the outside, but inside they begin to withdraw into themselves, into their problems and fears, and as a result, they stop trusting you and begin to distance themselves emotionally and spiritually.

Preventing fear of school

Prevention should begin in preschool age. Before sending your child to school, you need to make sure that he is ready to learn. There is such a thing as a child’s psychological readiness for school. It consists of morphophysiological, subject and psychological readiness. Psychological readiness presupposes intellectual and personal readiness, voluntary regulation of behavior and activity. Personal readiness includes emotional, motivational and communicative readiness, and also takes into account the formation of self-concept and self-esteem. All this is diagnosed by a psychologist; there are special tests and methods to determine a child’s readiness for school.

The second important element of prevention is a favorable psychological climate in the family. It is important that parents support the child. It is unacceptable for a family to have conflicts, scandals, or quarrels. Try to put yourself in the child’s position, listen to his opinion, do not yell at him or criticize him.

It is important! School adaptation and socialization depend on the child’s psychological readiness for school. An unprepared child suffers from maladaptation and often suffers from didaskaleinophobia.

Definition of the term

Translated from Greek, the word “phobia” means “fear”. The term didaskaleinophobia itself is explained as the fear of going to school. Only school-aged children suffer from this phobia.

Very often, parents do not notice the manifestations of this disease in their children, and the reluctance to attend an educational institution is explained by laziness and whims. Already in the elementary grades, the problem of fear of school can become acute, since during this period adaptation to the educational institution, daily routine and new responsibilities occurs, which in most cases is difficult for the child.

It is recommended to take a more careful and understanding approach to the issue and find out the true reasons for missing classes, since untimely treatment can aggravate the course of the disease. In the future, ignoring the phobia can lead to severe aggression and deep depression.

What are the consequences of the pathology

Panic fear of learning begins in childhood. However, even in adult life it has the most unpleasant consequences. As an adult, a person experiences difficulties; if, for example, he needs to master a computer program, then for known reasons he will not be able to do this.

As a rule, such people have difficulties building a career. If the boss requires you to take advanced training courses, then a person with the disorder simply will not be able to do this. Often, even with an education diploma, you have to relearn, and often even learn all over again, to master skills.

In addition, in life you also have to constantly acquire new skills and knowledge. Therefore, if you do not cope with such a phobia in time, then your future life will turn into a real nightmare. We should not forget that people with mental disorders try to limit their communication with the outside world. Therefore, their life turns into a real nightmare.

How to fight and get the opportunity to live a normal life

First of all, parents should be wary if their child is trying with all his might to avoid going to school. This is not always a whim. Often the fear of learning has very serious reasons. It is imperative for a child to receive a normal education, because his entire future life depends on it.

Therefore, if you notice characteristic symptoms, you should definitely contact a psychotherapist. If there is a problem, the child needs to be treated. In this case the following applies:

NLP methods;
Hypnosis.

In addition to psychotherapeutic techniques, drug therapy is also used. However, doctors are in no hurry to immediately prescribe pills. Therefore, you need to start a course of treatment and not wait until the situation goes too far.

In order to eliminate physical manifestations, tranquilizers and sedatives may be required.

You should not self-medicate. You are not a doctor and cannot help your child. In addition, therapy may involve the use of potent drugs. You will also not be able to independently determine their dosage for your child. Think about your child's future. The situation will only get worse in the future.

What should parents of schoolchildren be guided by?

Let us highlight the basic rules that parents of schoolchildren must follow:

don’t scare your child about school - you can’t say: “you can’t read, that means they won’t take you to school,” “if you don’t teach, they’ll kick you out of school”;
on the contrary, form a positive attitude towards school in your child : read books about school, discuss school life, get to know first-graders, etc.
do not put your hopes on the child , he should not be the best in school, class, etc.: do not tell him “you must be the best in school”;
Praise your child more often, create an atmosphere of success.

Recommendations from teachers

Here are some comments that I really liked from teacher Mingelevich T.V.

Wake up your child calmly , when he wakes up, he should see your smile and hear your gentle voice.
Don’t push me in the morning , don’t pull at me over trifles, don’t reproach me for mistakes and oversights, even if you warned me yesterday.
Don't rush . Timing is your job, and if it's bad, it's not the child's fault.
Don't send your child to school without breakfast , he will have to work a lot before school breakfast.
under any circumstances , “warning”: “look, don’t play around” , “behave well”, “so that there are no bad grades today”, etc.
Wish your child good luck , encourage him, find a few kind words - he has a difficult day ahead.
Forget the phrase “What did you get today?”.
Meet your child after school calmly , don’t bombard him with a thousand questions, let him relax (remember how you feel after a hard day at work, spending many hours communicating with people). If the child is too excited, if he wants to share something, don’t brush it off, don’t put it off for later, listen, it won’t take much time.
After listening to the teacher’s comments, do not rush to give the child a beating , try to have your conversation with the teacher take place without the child. By the way, it’s always a good idea to listen to “both sides” and not rush to conclusions. After school, do not rush to sit down for homework; you need two to three hours of rest (and in first grade it would be good to sleep for an hour and a half) to recuperate. The best time to prepare lessons is from 15 to 17 hours.
Don’t force students to do all their homework in one sitting ; after 15-20 minutes of studying, 10-15 minute “breaks” are necessary; it’s better if they are active.
When preparing lessons, do not sit “over your head” , give the child the opportunity to work on his own, but if your help is needed, be patient. A calm tone, support (“don’t worry, everything will work out,” “let’s figure it out together,” “I’ll help you”), praise (even if it doesn’t work out very well) are necessary.
When communicating with your child, try to avoid the conditions: “if you do, then...”, sometimes the conditions become impossible to fulfill regardless of the child, and you may find yourself in a very difficult situation.
Try to find at least half an hour during the day when you will belong only to the child, without being distracted by household chores, TV, or communication with other family members. At this moment, what matters most is his deeds, worries, joys and failures.
Develop a unified tactic for communication between all adults in the family and the child ; resolve your disagreements regarding pedagogical tactics without the child. If something doesn’t work out, consult a teacher, doctor, psychologist, do not consider the literature for parents superfluous, you will find a lot of useful information there.
Remember that during the school year there are critical periods when it is more difficult to study , fatigue sets in faster, and performance is reduced. These are the first 4-6 weeks for first graders (3-4 weeks for students in grades 2-4), the end of the 2nd quarter (from about December 15), the first week after winter break, the middle of the 3rd quarter. During these periods, you should be especially attentive to the child’s condition.
Be attentive to your child’s complaints of headache , fatigue, and poor condition. Most often, these are objective indicators of learning difficulty. Remember that even “very big” children (we often say: “You’re already big” to a 7-8 year old child) really love a bedtime story, a song and affectionate stroking. All this calms them down, helps them relieve the stress that has accumulated during the day, and help them fall asleep peacefully. Try not to remember troubles before going to bed, not to sort things out, not to discuss tomorrow’s test, etc.
Tomorrow is a new day, and you can do everything to make it calm, kind and joyful.

Symptoms

Behavioral

For schoolchildren, the first manifestations of sophophobia begin with the words: “I don’t want to go to school.” In some cases, certain objects cause rejection.

For example, a child is not able to cope with a foreign language, which is why he is afraid of this subject itself.

Everything connected with school and reminiscent of it causes disgust mixed with horror. That is, the building itself, chalk, backpacks, desks, uniforms and even classmates.

In this case, he is looking for any ways that will help avoid such a terrible fate - study.

Therefore, he comes up with the idea that something hurts him, that no homework was assigned, and in general, they made a weekday a day off in honor of some event.

If excuses don’t work, or parents no longer believe him, he skips classes. In the morning he gets ready, leaves the house, but does not get to school, but goes to a place where he can be alone with himself.

Often he is joined by friends who, for some reason, are also in no hurry to explore this world with the help of teachers.

In adults, this disorder can be traced to a categorical refusal to attend advanced training courses, master a new profession, or simply not want to take another position.

Only because you have to learn something, and then try to save face by not making mistakes.

Even hobby groups cause panic. Despite the fact that you really want, for example, to be able to dance beautifully, a phobe will not agree to enroll in a dance studio under any pretext.

He will claim that he is devoid of ambition and is provided with everything necessary for life, therefore he does not need proof that he is smart and capable of anything. That he is simple and does not aspire to career heights. Not everyone can be a CEO or a millionaire.

Somatic

At the sight of something that resembles school, university, or just thinking about classes, the phobe panics.

He quickly wants to be in a safe place, where no one will torment him, and pester him with moral lectures about how important it is in this life to get an education and the like.

He develops anxiety, that is, he looks as if he expects a trick and danger to arise at any moment. He twitches at every sound, looks warily at the interlocutor, from side to side.

Naturally, the nervous system is exhausted, which is why any little thing can cause tears. Because of this, his authority among his peers and relationships with them suffer.

During a panic attack, your arms and legs shake, and your voice often shakes. Breathing becomes frequent and shallow, blood pressure rises, and heart rate increases.

Such changes in the body do not go unnoticed, so it begins to hurt in the chest area, because the load on the heart increases. And then it seems that a heart attack is about to happen.

It is still difficult to breathe, the person is afraid that he will suffocate. Hyperventilation of the lungs occurs due to frequent short breaths, which is why such sensations occur.

The stomach often hurts, it begins to “twist”. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, or loss of consciousness occur. It looks as if all the body's systems momentarily shut down.

For example, a phobe enters a room, sees a blackboard, a strict teacher, and simply goes limp, fainting from fright.

There is a nervous tic when some facial muscle twitches, most often in the eye area. It makes you sweat, heat and your skin turns crimson.