The Use of Song Lyrics to Alleviate a Child's Fear

A two stage intervention employing a cognitive self-control strategy which made use of familiar song lyrics and successfully eliminated an intense fear in a nine-year-old boy in a school setting. In the first stage, the child learned to identify a cue which accompanied a strong anxiety response, in the second he learned to induce a competing cognitive coping response. The client was free of fear by the fourth day of treatment, suggesting the efficacy of using popular song lyrics as prompts for self-control strategies in children of this age.