Influence of fear stories on children

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Children should be taught not to be afraid. It is necessary to remember that we are immersed in a didactic relationship of three vertices: literature-teacher-student. In which the children show a genuine interest, having a great opportunity to work in classes, since in the tasks of selection, transmission and coordination of written and oral productions, we can find new challenges.

It is probably common for educators that all children want, ask for and demand horror stories, because the more monsters they have, the better for them. This is undoubtedly a collective explosion of interests and need.

What can we do when we receive these requests for children?

• We should not be shocked, this would alienate the children.
• Do not deny your requests, because we would be absent from your needs.
• Skeptical aptitude must be abandoned, since mockery and disqualification restrict one's own imagination and that of others.

If a teacher asks the children, what are they afraid of, they would be surprised.

In the hypothetical list do not appear:

• Vampires.
• Ghosts.
• Monsters.
• Dragons.

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We are perplexed by the common fears of children and that we have all suffered, such as:

• Loneliness.
• Darkness.
• The abandonment.
• Fear of the unknown.

So, why do they need these emblems of fear. Precisely, for that reason, because they are emblems, metaphors of true fears.

Children find answers to their own fears in the vicissitudes suffered by the characters, in the ways in which, even fearful, they face and survive.

When children request that they be told a story full of monsters, what they ask in rigor, are aesthetic and symbolic forms, to conjure their own fears.

The more they are allowed to frequent these expressions, the better they will know their fears and this will be the best tool they will have at their disposal to neutralize them. Therefore, the right of children not to be afraid is also our responsibility, since denying them that right will never allow them to differentiate with "simulacra" what literature can provide, challenge and overcome fears.

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It is convenient that fear stories are addressed from two tides.

• You must present characters such as witches or monsters in unusual contexts, for example: in the streets of the city, in a playground, in a supermarket. With characters with features unrelated to their perception, such as: loving and distracted witches, good and friendly monsters. To make the scenario of reading or creating horror stories rewarding, it is preferable to use it in sinister forests and haunted houses, nuance them with beneficial characters that act on them.

• Allowing children to express their fears to certain situations and thus be able to face their own fears. It is important that the stories in the school, maintain an emotional tension measured in affections of not causing anguish and unnecessary fright.

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Suggestions for the use of fear stories.

• A good way to introduce the topic of fear is to talk with children about their own fears and interest, they have to frequent this type of texts.
• You have to tell different types of scary stories, because from there, you let them know, that they should not fear anything, these are fantasy readings.
• Children should be asked, after reading the story: did they feel afraid? And yes, it has been infused by a character or situation.
  -Children can inventing new characters based on some ludic-literary proposals. For example: They will be able to work on their favorite monster, where the characteristics and capacities of the same one are conformed. The educator must guide them, reminding them aspects such as costumes, customs and some particularities.
• Explaining to the children, that the stories are just that, "stories", they must create activities that allow the receptivity of the same, they can coordinate the production, creating characters.

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Greetings educators and motivators of education