Parenting to Reduce School Anxiety
Preparation prevents reactivity in any situation, so in
order to discourage anticipatory anxiety lets get prepared. Leave dialogue open
for questions with your child, there are no dumb questions or concerns. Don't
be afraid to have conversations with your child, walk them through processes. What
are their biggest fears about the new school year? Don't minimize or jump to
fix, process the way they are thinking and feeling with them and then move
towards offering suggestions. As parents, we often want to fix our children’s
problems, but long term the results will be much greater to help them develop
the tools to solve their own problems.
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Use examples from your own life that can help
them to know that you were there and you had concerns as well.
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Start envisioning what success is and pathways
to creating that vision. Create this vision with your child, maybe your vision
and theirs is not the same so take time to work on it together. The amount of
say so that your child has is relative to their age , as they get older give
them more voice.
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Preparation not pressure- perceived or real
doesn't make a difference but most kids who struggle with anxiety suffer from
perceived pressure to perform from their parents.
So it is important to begin to distinguish
between the 2, by helping the child prepare and then be emotionally supportive
by addressing possible struggles before they happen. This may seem like it
takes time on the front side but it is well worth it. Their feedback is
fundamental to having a working dialogue versus the child accumulating more
pressure to perform.
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Even with planning things don’t always work out.
Sometimes Parents believe that if they offer their kids all the information
then it should forgo any complications but that just doesn’t hold up. So its
how we deal with the setbacks not if they occur.
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What is your child really saying? Or what are
they really asking for? Often children struggle to communicate clearly what
they need from us, so what we think and what they are saying that they need
maybe all wrong. Take time to pay attention to the clues and step back. When we
rush to fix we often miss the forest for the trees. As people we know that in life
things don’t always go as planned, so let's help to defuse the frustration by
having realistic expectations for ourselves and our children.
These tips can be used in collaboration with Anxiety
Resolver the Smartphone app, you can do it with your child to help them develop
awareness and healthy coping skills early in life. Its never to early to start
teaching children emotional intelligence and great communication skills to help increase the likelihood of healthy developmental formation.
For more information go to anxietyresolverapp.com or
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anxiety-resolver/id777678167?mt=8
For questions of comments send emails to: recoveringhopeproject@gmail.com
