How to Interpret Children's Dreams
Our dreams are the keys to our inner life. Although experts still cannot agree on what dreaming is or why we do it, most are agreed that dreams deal in symbolic significance and that they can be found to give clues to hidden meanings in our lives. Children in particular experience very vivid dreams that can be confusing or disturbing. Using the Gestalt analytical method, you can help your child understand his dream and what it means, uncovering clues about his internal life in the process.
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Instructions
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Ask the child for as many details as she can provide about the dream. Who was in it? What objects does she remember? What happened first, and what's the last thing she remembers? Write these details down and make a list of key actors in the dream.
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Choose a specific character or object as described by the child. For example, if the dream involved a talking spider, ask the child to close his eyes and repeat the phrase "I am the spider. I am..." and wait for the child to supply an adjective of his own.
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Repeat this process, having the child describe all the objects and characters in her dream as though in the first person. Write down the adjectives the child gives you and relate them back to the key actors in the dream.
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Discuss with the child possible feelings or meanings that might have been revealed by the actors in the child's dream or by the child's description of those actors.
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Consult online dream dictionaries for deeper insight into what particular symbols might mean. If the dreams you are trying to analyze are particularly difficult to understand, have the child keep a regular journal in the morning describing his dreams from the night before. Pay close attention to dreams that repeat or bring up the same themes, as these are likely important issues for your child to deal with.
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