Anxiety disorders can affect people of virtually any age group. For school kids in particular, anxiety is often mistaken for something else like upset stomach, acting out, ADHD and even learning disorders, according to Child Mind Institute.
Speaking of school kids, it has to be noted that there are many different kinds of anxiety. That is one of the reasons it can be hard to detect in the classroom. According to neurologist Ken Schuster, PsyD, what they all have in common is that anxiety “tends to lock up the brain” and in turn make school very hard for anxious kids.
Bored Panda reached out to Claire E. Cameron, an associate professor of learning and instruction at University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education, to find out more about young sufferers of anxiety and ways to help it.
According to Cameron, there is still a lot of stigma when it comes to talking about mental health. “Teachers should learn to listen to youth in a non-judgmental way and help them work with a school counselor or other trusted adult, if the need is beyond the teacher’s training level.”
Moreover, “Teachers can also incorporate social-emotional learning into their teaching and need to model healthy self-care such as getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food, and practicing mindfulness. Re-focusing students on their strengths and assets is critical,” Cameron added.
Most importantly, helping youth to identify the ideas they feel good about and making them feel good is key in easing early anxiety in school children. Cameron says it can be anything from activities they enjoy doing, like sports or theater, to volunteering (not going on their phones). “And then spending as much of their time and attention on those things,” the professor noted.
Our culture tends to value people’s outward appearance and achievements, the professor argues. “Yet where human beings find meaning is in strong healthy relationships and doing work (including academic work) that contributes to the community and to a sense of greater good.”
According to the professor, teachers can involve students in service learning projects to help students connect what they are learning in school to the outside world.
Ken Schuster, PsyD, who was a former teacher, told Child Mind Institute that you could see it in a child’s behavior that they were having anxiety issues. “Back when I was teaching, I would notice that when I had to call on someone, or had to figure out whose turn it was to speak, it was like the anxious kid always tended to disappear.”
“The eager child is making eye contact, they’re giving you some kind of physical presence in the room like ‘Call on me, call on me!’”
However, when kids are anxious about answering questions in class, they act the opposite. “They’re going to break eye contact, they might look down, they might start writing something even though they’re not really writing something. They’re trying to break the connection with the teacher in order to avoid what’s making them feel anxious,” Schuster explained.
