This week I'm sharing a short article about ways to support an anxious student. I'm often in conversation with our clinical team about how careful we need to be not to inadvertently reinforce anxious students' fears. Well-meaning school teams often end up giving anxious students accommodations that don't also help them challenge or face-distorted anxious or fear-based beliefs. Accommodations such as a shorter day schedule, time alone, and breaks when the feelings show up could be sending messages to the child that the world is an unmanageable place, and they can't handle it so we'll find ways that they can escape. Ideally, we will work with these students to accommodate just long enough to build the strength they need to lean into their anxieties and disconfirm their worries - worries that are out of proportion and/or debilitating them in their life.
Okay, so how DO we support an anxious kid in the moment? What could we say or recommend that wouldn't be simply rescuing them from their feelings? It's not helpful to say "buck up kid, deal with it!" But it's equally not helpful, it turns out, to say "I'll save you!" This article offers some simple phrases that we can use with anxious children - it's written for parents, but I think useful for all of us.
Maybe you'll print this out and put it up somewhere as a reminder, or even share with the parent of a child who seems to experience more anxiety.
Enjoy!
Maybe you'll print this out and put it up somewhere as a reminder, or even share with the parent of a child who seems to experience more anxiety.
Enjoy!
Blog post written by:
Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention Services
Emily Marsh, Director of Clinical Intervention Services
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