Fears of Visually Impaired Pre-School Children and Their Parents

The article analyses the fears of preschool age children, with visual impairment, and the fears of their parents. It was aimed to define whether the fears of preschool age children, with vision problems, differ from the fears of the same age children, with no vision problems. The hypothesis was formed that the parental childhood fears can be transmitted to their mature age, and present fears can be transmitted to their children. The results of the research revealed such tendencies as follows: the participating in the research preschool age children, with vision problems, do not have any exceptional fears, comparing to the children of the same age but with no vision problems; the larger number of fears reflected in those children, whose parents have a high educational level, comparing to the parents, with a lower educational level; children from incomplete families have more fears; mothers used to have less fears in childhood than they have now; the fears, children and some parents have, might have been transmitted from parents to children.


Introduction
The fear is a human emotion, which strengthens the self-protection sensation.The fears, becoming too big and extreme, transform into phobias.Nowadays the attempts are made to understand, what kind of fears and phobias are typical for the inhabitants of a particular country (Zlobin, 2016).There is a variety of reasons for phobias to appear, but (as a majority of fears) they come from a childhood.A child's central nervous system is particularly sensitive and can be quickly damaged.The fears can be influenced by frights, diseases, conflicts or disasters.Paradoxally, the educators (parents, relatives, preschool teachers and specialists) are guilty of a majority of fears, appearing in a childhood, as they emotionally emphasize and indicate the dangerous situations lurking around: "Don't approach too much -you will fall", "Don't touch -you will get burnt", "Don't stroke -it will bite" etc.It is not clear for a preschool age child what it really means, but the child is already able to understand the sign of a danger, so, the reaction towards a fear appears from regulating a child's behaviour (Zaharov, 2007).
It is supposed that some of the fears are natural (e.g., of strangers, sharp noises, height, and pain).Children usually feel these kinds of fears during approximately the 8th month of life.One year old children feel fear because they usually imagine the danger and threats.The fear is provoked by the objects, related to a stressful situation, experienced before (e.g., if a child had fallen into the water before -he will be afraid of water, if he had ever been burnt -he will be afraid of fire, if he had been attacked by a dog -he will be afraid of a dog, etc.).A one year old child will remember a person or an object, provoking an unpleasant situation, and later on, he will be able to associate it with negative experiences.During this period of age another reason for fear -parental, especially, of mothers -appears.If parents, being a child's social safety guarantee, are afraid of something and evidently demonstrate it unambiguously, it can be considered that a preschool age child, with no ability to critically comprehend the things still in such an age, will be afraid of that spider, mouse or frog as well.Another rule for parents to take into a consideration -they cannot threaten a preschool age child with/by anything/anybody.A psychologist A. Pundzevičienė emphasizes that it is great, if parents realise their own fears and do not transmit them to their children.The best form to react towards children's fears -not to take them seriously enough, without proper fears, judgements or punishments.It is not necessary to be afraid or get scared just because a child is afraid or is scared.A majority of fears disappear during the process of a child's growth, only if we ourselves will not hang upon those fears.It is not necessary to protect, teach, and worry for what it can happen to a child, as this provokes much more stress and fear.It is only necessary to listen to and believe in that the child will be able to face his/her own fears by himself/herself.When parents believe in that, children start gaining more self-confidence and become more independent (Pundzevičienė, 2008).Also, it is necessary to talk with a child, starting 5 years of age, Pedagogika / 2017, t. 128, Nr. 4 about fears in simple words in the same way as with an adult, and explain everything, without letting the fear to take root, or even worse, to transform into phobias in the future.As it was mentioned, phobias are characteristic to people, having psychopathy, neurosis, central nervous system indispositions, treatments with psychotherapy means.Many modern book writers consider and give recommendations on how to overcome fears and phobias (Clarkson, 2005;Molicka, 2007Molicka, , 2009;;Marina, 2010;Kovpak, 2012;Cirtautienė & Meslinienė, 2012;Kurpatov, 2013;Merfi, 2013;Picugin, 2013;Frenkel, 2014;Elc, 2014 etc.).
The problem is that the fears preschool children have, can be transmitted into the adulthood.
The goal of the research -reveal the fears of preschool age children with vision problems, and the childhood and present fears of their parents.
The objectives: to compare the fears of preschool age children, with vision problems, who participated in the research, according to the gender; to compare the preschool age children fears, with vision problems and without vision problem, that participated in the research, with the fears, described in literary resources; to compare the fears of parents, who participated in the research, according to the gender; to compare the childhood present fears of parents, who participated in the research; to define if the present fears, parents have, are being transmitted to their children.
The methods of the research.Parents indicated their childhood and present fears as well as the fears of their own children in an anonymous questionnaire.The research consisted of two stages: I stage -questionnaire form; II -volunteering parents consulted with a psychologist about their children's and their own present fears.111 parents participated in consulting.53 parents indicated preschool children fears were present (from 55 in a questionnaire) (see Table 1).Children, who participated in a research, did not have fears about phone calls and doorbells according to a questionnaire.

Children fears
Anxiety and fear are natural human emotions, but children feel fear more intensively.The spectrum of children fears is much wider than the one of the adults (see Tables 1, 2, 3 There were not any essential differences noticed between the girls' fears and the boys' fears, regarding a quantity or a variety.Slightly larger quantitative differences have been reflected in hardly several types of fears: girls tend more to have fear being separated from parents and have fear of strangers.Various kinds of point views were noticed towards the tolerance of pain, according to the gender.(Robinson, Gagnon, Rilley, & Price, 2003).However, boys are more likely to have fear of dentists (including toothaches) than the girls.The most frequent fear of children, who participated in the research, was a fear of losing family members (62.6%) because parents are the guarantee of safety for children.In comparison with literary resources information about preschool children fears, the participants (60%) of our research had a larger fear of fire.The reason for this fear might be explained, as recently, there was a fire in the town, where the research was being performed, and two little children died during that fire.This accident was widely published in media and commented on TV programmes, and it is evident that this accident was mentioned in families as well.A half (50.6%) of children, who participated in the research have fear of a new place.If such a fear does not disappear till the age of 6 years, it can transform into a school fear (Dagienė, 2006).A part of children fear -is a reflection of an adult anxiety (Martinkienė, Galiauskas, & Bandžiulienė, 2006).Parental and adult conversations, unlimited adult TV programmes watching for a preschool age consciousness provokes the non-childish fears.Children in this age start realising the fear of death (Slaughter, 2005).9.3% children, participating in the research, had a fear of death.In spite of all the classical kinds of fears such as monsters, witches, ghosts, we can notice fears, reflecting the parental insecurity (e.g., fear of burglars) Although Pedagogika / 2017, t. 128, Nr. 4 just several parents had fears of war, the mentioned anxiety provoked this new fear in a child's consciousness, taking into consideration the fact that the fear of war is not characteristic of children at all.Preschool age children do not have critical comprehension, thus, it provokes various kinds of fears.For this reason, it is not allowed to threaten a child ever with anything.A child should not notice the parental fears.If a mother, who is a social safety guarantee for a child, demonstrates her panic to a tiny mouse, and her child observes mother's emotions towards that animal, this child can apply the same fear to him/her and even for the rest of his/her life.

Parental fears
18 (8.3%)parents did not have any fears in their childhood: mothers 4 (5.3%), 14 (20.9%)fathers.A part of parents had indicated in a questionnaire that they do not remember any fears, experienced in their childhood, thus, their answers were included into the answer option for "had no fears".

Table 2
The dynamics of fears of mothers, who have and take care of preschool age children Table 3 The dynamics of fears of men, who have and take care of preschool age children

Table 3
The dynamics of fears of men, who have and take care of preschool age children Meanwhile analysing the results of parental fears, it is necessary to emphasize that mothers and fathers had a similar number of fears in their childhood.Mothers, even 7 of them, have maintained fears from their childhood (height, snakes, dogs, mice, earthworms, closed spaces, burglars).The fears of mothers, that reflected in a childhood and had transmitted to an adult age are marked in black (see Table 2) A part of children have the same fears as their mothers.Thus, it can be concluded that some fears are transmitted to children from their mothers because some children have the same fears as their mothers have.The number of fears of fathers is rather similar between the childhood (21) and now (16) (see Table 3).Though, the number of mothers' fears, having now and then, is evidently different: 22 fears, experiences in childhood and 35 present fears now.The larger variety of mother's fears is evident as well.Some common characteristic fears belong to mothers as well as fathers: fears of height, a loss of a family member, diseases, death, snakes, dogs, war.Only four fears of fathers, that they had in their childhood and still have now, were noticed among the respondentsheight, dogs, snakes and needles.Meanwhile the number of mother's fears, which "came from" their childhood and still being felt till now, is much bigger and rises till 10height, darkness, spiders, snakes, mice, dogs, earthworms, funeral, blood, needles.Inexperienced in a childhood fears also appeared for women.Obviously, the opportunities to travel more provoked more fears, related to travelling, such as fear of flying by plane, stare at the deepness of sea waters etc.It can be concluded that a stronger feeling of responsibility of mothers influenced the origin of such fears as fear of a child's health, of losing a child, or fear of something bad can happen to a child.As it is much more complicated for women, who take care of preschool age children, to get a job, such fears as losing a job or inability to adapt have been noticed as well (Petraitienė, 2005).The investigation, performed in 2017, reflects children and adults fear tendencies nowadays.It is necessary to provide well-timed psychological help for preschool age children, having various kinds of fears so that those fears would not transform into phobias (Vard, Meanwhile analysing the results of parental fears, it is necessary to emphasize that mothers and fathers had a similar number of fears in their childhood.Mothers, even 7 of them, have maintained fears from their childhood (height, snakes, dogs, mice, earthworms, closed spaces, burglars).The fears of mothers, that reflected in a childhood and had transmitted to an adult age are marked in black (see Table 2) A part of children have the same fears as their mothers.Thus, it can be concluded that some fears are transmitted to children from their mothers because some children have the same fears as their mothers have.The number of fears of fathers is rather similar between the childhood (21) and now (16) (see Table 3).Though, the number of mothers' fears, having now and then, is evidently different: 22 fears, experiences in childhood and 35 present fears now.The larger variety of mother's fears is evident as well.Some common characteristic fears belong to mothers as well as fathers: fears of height, a loss of a family member, diseases, death, snakes, dogs, war.Only four fears of fathers, that they had in their childhood and still have now, were noticed among the respondents -height, dogs, snakes and needles.Meanwhile the number of mother's fears, which "came from" their childhood and still being felt till now, is much bigger and rises till 10 -height, darkness, spiders, snakes, mice, dogs, earthworms, funeral, blood, needles.Inexperienced in a childhood fears also appeared for women.Obviously, the opportunities to travel more provoked more fears, Pedagogika / 2017, t. 128, Nr. 4 related to travelling, such as fear of flying by plane, stare at the deepness of sea waters etc.It can be concluded that a stronger feeling of responsibility of mothers influenced the origin of such fears as fear of a child's health, of losing a child, or fear of something bad can happen to a child.As it is much more complicated for women, who take care of preschool age children, to get a job, such fears as losing a job or inability to adapt have been noticed as well (Petraitienė, 2005).The investigation, performed in 2017, reflects children and adult fear tendencies nowadays.It is necessary to provide well-timed psychological help for preschool age children, having various kinds of fears so that those fears would not transform into phobias (Vard, 2002;Gudonis, 2009;Kovpak, 2012).The conclusions are based on the hypothesis because the investigational samples are not expanded enough.

Conclusions
The preschool age children, who participated in the research and have visual problems, do not have exceptional fears, in comparison with the same age children, who have no visual problems.
A larger number of fears have those children, participating in the research, whose parents have a high educational level, in comparison with parents, who have a lower educational level.
Children, participating in the research and who live in the incomplete families, have many more fears.
Mothers, who participated in the research, have fewer fears now than they used to have in their childhood.
The same fears, children and parents have now and who participated in this investigation, could have been transmitted from parents.