PSYCHOLOGY OF FEARS OF SIX-YEAR-OLD STUDENTS AT THE PRIMARY STAGES OF SCHOOL EDUCATION

The article is related to the theoretical analysis of the psychology of children's fears and empirical research aimed at identifying, clarifying, and receiving additional information about the causes of fears of six-year-old students. The purpose of the research is to identify and analyze the causes that may provoke fears of six-year-old students of the first grade, to offer parents methods of providing psychological assistance to children. Several research methods have been used. Theoretical: theoretical analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, systematization; empirical: art therapy technique, test, individual conversations. In particular, the following research methods have been used: drawing technique of art therapy designed to identify the causes that provoke children's fears; test «Fears in houses» (according to M. A. Panfilova) for conducting the diagnosis of fears; individual interviews were carried out to find out what the children were afraid of. It has been determined that the greatest fear of six-year-old boys is the fear of death and physical injury. Girls are most of all afraid of injections and doctors, as well as of height, depth, confined spaces. Both boys and girls are afraid of animals, disease, nightmares. It has been established that the most common fears among the six-year-old pupils are: natural (biological) – those related to the threat to the life of the child; social – fear and apprehension about changing their social status and internal – generated by the imagination, fantasy of the child. A guide for parents on how to avoid fears in six-year-old children at the primary stages of school education has been compiled. The use of art techniques to overcome children's fears has been proposed. It has been emphasized that creative ways of self-expression should be aimed at the development of child's relationship with himself and the external world. The relevance of using drawing techniques to diagnose and tackle the fears of six-year-old students of the first grade has been justified. It is noted that children's fears require the most careful examination and the earliest elimination in order to prevent the emergence of neurosis as a mental illness of the child at the primary stages of school education. The importance of modifying the work on eliminating children's fears at the initial stages of school education is noted.