Beating School Anxiety: Quick Tips for Confidence!

I want to take some time to discuss school anxiety and tips parents and guardians can use in order to increase their students confidence to be their best selves. My name is Dr. Jessica Green and I am a licensed therapist. School anxiety can take on the role of bigger school and activities associated with it including making friends, speaking in public in front of students, in front of the class, taking tests and even first day jitters. And also coming back to school from a holiday. It can be so severe it can affect one's ability to learn and function at school.

So what are some of the causes of fear? We're going to take a look at five. The first is the fear and worry about going to school. So three important factors that are associated with that fear and worry include safety, separation and performance issues. Number two, school refusal is not recognized as a mental health diagnosis. But there are symptoms that are associated with several diagnoses and these would include the top five depression, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and the last one is post traumatic stress disorder, ptsd.

And that's a new one due to the violence at school, student brings, bringing weapons to school, violence at the bus stop and any trauma that is associated with the school that affects our students ability to be successful and thrive. So parents, what are eight practices that we can utilize? Number one, talk to your child about anxiety and their fear. Validate their feelings. Number two, change will always be a part of life regardless how old you are. The more your student understands this, the easier their life will be.

It's important that we ask our students what are some things that have changed in their life lately and what good things have come from these changes. Number three, model positive behaviors, set the tone and lead by example. Number four, communication. So there are two examples I want to give you where we can change the word but to and because. But takes on a negative connotation but and brings on positive. So for example, the kitchen is a mess and we ask our child, hey, I see you did a great job cleaning the kitchen, but you left something out.

That child is only going to see and hear that word. But where we turn into a negative but a way we could turn that into a positive. Changing that word but to and you did a great job cleaning the kitchen and I see you left one thing out. Their response will be more positive. Oh my goodness, I cannot believe I left that out. Let me go grab it. You see that change in communication, that's what we want from our students. Number five, stay involved with your child's education. Some districts utilize PowerSchool where we can see our students, grades, attend this discipline, et cetera.

Number six, make sure we emphasize the changes in safety measures at school, whether it's metal detectors, school resource officers, clear bags, cell phones. Number seven, parents being flexible. That school bus may come late in the afternoon or pick up maybe late in the morning. Your student may have some activities or some responsibilities they need to take care of before they leave that school building. Be flexible and be patient. Number eight, Focus on the positives regarding school. Looking into the future doesn't have to trigger worry.

What you could do is ask your student these three questions or three things that they appreciate about that very moment of being in school. As always, be courageous. Have compassion and build connections.