Guest guest Posted May 15, 2001 Report Share Posted May 15, 2001 , It's an interesting question that you ask. Unfortunately, I have no answer! My 7 yr old is afraid of animals too. This is something that developed over the last couple of years. It's weird because he is very much into animals. He watches 'Animal Planet " a lot, has several books on animals that he reads often, and can identify any animal you ask him to. Yet when we go to the zoo, he is very disinterested in stopping to look at any of the animals. When the neighbor's dog comes running into the yard to play with my other son, my 7 yr old freaks out! I dunno....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 15, 2001 Report Share Posted May 15, 2001 Does your child have any sensory problems? I know for my son, he gets " afraid " of dogs, because they are always sniffing him and they have wet noses and usually move quickly and can be " jumpers " . This is torture for him since he is very tactilely defensive. I don't like when my dog sniffs me (yes, we have a dog and no, my son still doesn't feel comfortable with him sniffing him) because it does tickle but I can't imagine how it must be for someone with a oversensitivity to touch. We have had our dog for almost a year and although it has been inconvenient at times to keep him away from my son, my son is no longer afraid of him (he would scream out of fear in the beginning). We always keep the dog away from him and my son has slowly gotton more comfortable with him around. We never leave them alone together just to be safe. We also did a social story for him discussing that he likes dogs but he doesn't like when they sniff him because they tickle. This really seemed to help him verbalize his feelings. He likes the dog now, he just doesn't want him to sniff or lick him. He will pet the dog's back if we are holding him. Overall, I'm glad we did get the dog because he has helped my son to deal with his fear. Just wondered, Liberty Re: OT: Fear of animals > , > It's an interesting question that you ask. Unfortunately, I have no answer! > My 7 yr old is afraid of animals too. This is something that developed over > the last couple of years. It's weird because he is very much into animals. He > watches 'Animal Planet " a lot, has several books on animals that he reads > often, and can identify any animal you ask him to. Yet when we go to the zoo, > he is very disinterested in stopping to look at any of the animals. When the > neighbor's dog comes running into the yard to play with my other son, my 7 yr > old freaks out! > I dunno....... > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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