CORRECTION OF FEARS IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN FROM LARGE AND SMALL FAMILIES

The urgency of the problem of identifying and correcting children's fears today against the backdrop of instabil-ity in our society is a very important concern – a modern child faces a lot of unfavorable factors affecting his/her development. The article describes the research aiming to reveal dominant fears and ways of their elimination in chil-dren of preschool age from large (having more than two children) and small (having less than three children) families. The following research methods were applied: “Fears in Children” questionnaire (Kuzmina, 2000), “Fears in Little Houses” by Panfilova (Zakharov, 2000), Zakharov's “My Fears” projective method (Zakharov, 2000). As a result of the research it was found that the correction should be carried out with children from small families, because they have higher indicators of the number of fears. For this purpose, a corrective program was developed to help children overcome their fears. It includes three components: work with parents, with a pedagogical team, and with a child. As a result of the program's approbation, it has been revealed that it contributes to the elimination and prevention of child fears: by certain indicators, some types of fears have decreased by almost 1.5-2 times, and some types of fears have disappeared. The results obtained make it possible to promulgate that carrying out correctional measures will posi-tively influence the mental state of the child. When comparing the results of the study to identify the dominant fears in children from large families and small children, it can be argued that children from large families are less prone to fears, they are more socially adapted, sociable, and less anxious.