Ya Ya the Yellow Cat
As Laurel’s world of words has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, we’re reminded daily of just how observant she is, and how imaginative. About a month ago, one way her imagination began evidencing itself was through nightmares. She woke up crying in the middle of the night, and we soon learned about her fear of animals and people coming into her room; among them, a character named Ya Ya the Yellow Cat.
There’s little to do about nightmares other than provide comfort and calm during the day and the nighttime episode itself, but one method that has worked beautifully for us is using Laurel’s language abilities to advantage. Asking questions about her nightmares and listening to her responses shows Laurel that we take her seriously, and has allowed us to reverse the polarity of some of the nightmares over time.
Jon actually was the first to learn about the origin of Laurel’s fears; her big room in our new home, the dogs barking in the yard next door, and the noisy entry downstairs all seemed to contribute to her fear of unwelcome guests. Jon used conversation (and a little bedtime song he came up with) to convey to Laurel that no one came into our house unless one of us said so, and that her room was a safe and peaceful place. And as he asked more questions about Ya Ya the Yellow Cat, he also reminded her about other yellow things and neighborhood cats that she loves; over time, and with these positive associations, Ya Ya became a friend not foe.
Comments
That is too cute! I love the conversations as cure take on the nightmares and/or night time fears. I, too, being the verbal person I am, try to talk with my sons about their fears (my 5 year old is currently working through this thing about rats getting into our house...we have none I assure you all, and him). At the risk of sounding like i'm giving in to all of the gender stereotypes out there, I have realized that with boys the use of conversation has to be either dazzlingly simple or "just the facts ma'am". My neice on the other hand, seems most comforted if you can almost wax poetic about whatever it is she's dealing with. The converstation and it's combinations and permutations aren't over until she says so. It's like she can take it in directions that don't even occur to my boys.
A while back we also dealt with a fear of thunder and lightning implanted by silly friends at daycare during a daytime storm. Once I explained what thunder and lightning actually were (another science geek over here!), and asked him if he felt better, he said with the most serious tone, "well, yeah, now that I know the truth." I only realized later how far his imagination had taken him when he explained what he thought lightning was. A long rod of some sort of solid material, probably steel or metal that could poke things and "make them dead." yikes! Now, how to explain that while rats live in Canada, they won't actually get into our house??
Posted by: tracyp | December 5, 2006 9:21 AM