Imagine that you have a 5-year-old son who is extremely timid, and has been hypersensitive about—and a bit fearful of—new people and places since he was born. What do you do?
Accept that he has a shy temperament and think of ways to shelter him from situations that would upset him.
Take him to a child psychiatrist for help.
Deliberately expose him to lots of new people and places so he can get over his fear.
Engineer an ongoing series of challenging but manageable experiences that will teach him that he can handle new people and places.