It is typical for a child’s imagination to become very vivid at this age. This is why I think it is important to look at your child’s environment and try to see it through her eyes. Try to be sure she isn’t seeing any frightening images on T.V. or in books. Also, talk about the characters that she is watching, i.e. “That big bird is yellow and funny!”, “That Mr. Cookie (our name for cookie monster) sure eats a lot of cookies, I bet he gets a tummy ache”. When these vivid images are first presented to your kids, they may not know how to interpret them – scary or funny. When parents and kids are laughing together at the funny Elmo bouncing around the screen, then it helps the child not to be afraid. Of course, this can be more difficult when there are older children in the house because of the things they like to watch.
Dr. Jim