Strategies to help your child with anxiety
By Natalie Teeters, Psychotherapist
Here are some strategies to help your child who is dealing with anxiety.
Let your Child Worry
Avoid Avoidance
Build a Coping Kit
Set Clear Expectations
Practice Reframing
Empathize Often
Get Back to Basics
Let your child worry: Telling your child to not worry, won’t stop them from worrying. Schedule a specific time each day for your child to vent his/her concerns to you. This will give your child support and give time for both of you to brain storm ideas to cope with the worries.
Avoid Avoidance: Keeping your child away from what makes him/her anxious won’t cure the anxiety. Infact, it could make it worse. Instead help desensitize your child from what causes anxiety. Start showing pictures of what triggers anxiety, talk to them about it, slowly help empower them to be able to be around the trigger and survive it.
Setting Clear Expectations will help your child know what to expect and help them feel empowered when they accomplish what was expected. Your child will probably not want to attend every birthday party he/she is invited to due to anxiety. This is ok. It may be best to only attend the small birthday party that is in a quiet place.
Build a Coping Kit: There are tons of fun activities that you can do with your child to help them learn to soothe and regulate their emotions. Make this a fun activity. You can create a special spot in your home called the “ calm down spot” that has a box full of items he/she can use to soothe self. Child therapist help you build these coping kits in sessions as well.
Practice Reframing: Find ways to help your child talk about their experience, give them new ways of describing what is being felt and perceived. Reframing helps your child feel more in control.
Empthaize Often: Help your child feel understood. Tell him/her of times you may have felt anxious. Help normalize these feelings for him/her.
Back to Basics: Getting back to the basics helps kids feel secure. To do this do things such as
1. make sure child is getting enough sleep
2. provide a good diet
3. Drink plenty of water
4. Schedule down time each day
5. Go outside and play
For further reading on child anxiety:
https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/anxiety-disorders.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dont-worry-mom/201302/12-tips-reduce-your-childs-stress-and-anxiety, https://www.psycom.net/help-kids-with-anxiety