Back to school anxiety is a very real feeling for many children; children and teens returning to school, changing schools, or for first-timers starting kindergarten.
Anxious children may act out in one or more ways. They may cry, complain of feeling sick, become clingy or withdraw, and become irritable or angry.
These behaviours can be stressful and disruptive for the entire family.
Anxieties are Normal: Anxious children and teens worry about many different school-related issues, such as teachers, friends, fitting in, and/or being away from their parents.
Don’t let your child convince you to let them stay home. Skipping school will only increase your child’s anxiety because if they don’t go to school, they will never get a chance to find out if their worries are valid.
Also, when children and teens stay home because of anxiety, they mis valuable opportunities to develop and practice social skills as well as significant chances for success and building self-confidence.
Here are some tips that will help you and your child deal with back-to-school anxiety
Maintain healthy habits.
Ensure your child gets enough sleep, eats regular meals and healthy snacks, and has daily exercise. When your child’s mind and body are nourished, tackling school worries is easier.
Listen to your child’s concerns.
Let your child talk about what’s on their mind. For some kids and teens, a private time with undivided attention from a parent feels best. For others, a more casual method of talking, like in the car, at meals, or even bath time, feels less intense and makes it easier for them to express themselves. For still others, interacting with peers who share those feelings and being guided by a qualified person to develop useful coping skills can be the answer. At Kidz Mpowered, we offer workshops that can help with that.
Develop a coping plan.
Anxious youth are often poor problem solvers and doubt their ability to cope. Addressing your child’s fear head-on, by creating an active plan with concrete solutions, will significantly reduce the worry. Create “what if” questions and help your child think of ways to handle those situations. At Kidz Mpowered we have workshops for younger children as well as for tweens which are tailored to provide the tools children can use to do this.
Encourage your child
Help them to redirect attention away from worries and towards the positives. Ask your child, questions about what good things they can think about the first day of school. Chances are the fun aspects are simply getting overlooked by their anxiety.
Remember, children take cues from their parents, so the more confidence and calm you can model, the more your child will believe that they can handle this new hurdle.
At Kidz Mpowered we can help you to give your child the tools they need to face and overcome their anxiety about school.
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