In this post, we talk about tips for supporting anxious children. Anxiety is one of the most common mental health issues affecting children and young people today.
While some anxiety is normal, excessive worrying and nervousness can significantly impact a child’s daily life and emotional well-being. As a parent, foster carer, or caregiver, you play a critical role in helping anxious children manage their fears and worries.
Tips for Supporting Anxious Children
Keep reading for tips and strategies drawn from child psychology research and clinical practice to help anxious children thrive.
Understand the Causes
To effectively support an anxious child, it is important to understand what may be contributing to their anxiety. Anxiety disorders have a biological component, often running in families.
Environmental factors also play a major role. Things like stressful life events, high parental expectations, or a tense home environment can trigger anxiety.
For children in short-term fostering, adjusting to a new family and separation from parents are common anxiety triggers. Other potential contributors include bullying, academic pressures, or traumatic experiences like abuse or neglect. Identifying anxiety triggers specific to the child can help guide your support strategies.
Provide a Calm Home Environment
A chaotic, stressful home life tends to exacerbate anxiety in children. Establishing structure through regular routines and reasonable expectations helps children feel more secure.
Minimise arguing or tension between family members and emphasise cooperation and compassion. Make time for family activities and one-on-one time with each child.
Display warmth, patience, and understanding when they share worries with you. Providing a stable, loving home is vital for anxious children.
Teach Coping Skills
Equipping children with coping strategies gives them valuable lifelong tools to manage anxiety. Work on relaxation techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, visualisation, and meditation.
Practice identifying anxious thoughts and thinking through problems in a calmer, more rational way. Regular exercise and sufficient sleep also help manage anxiety.
Encourage children to verbalise their feelings rather than bottling them up. Maintaining a journal, listening to music, talking to a friend or writing a story can provide positive outlets for anxiety. Validate their emotions and praise efforts to cope effectively.
Be a Role Model
Children often mimic the coping strategies they observe in parents and caregivers. Model healthy ways of dealing with stress and anxiety in your own life.
Practice the relaxation, thought-challenging, and distress-tolerance techniques you want your child to learn. Speak positively about handling life’s challenges.
Avoid criticising yourself or catastrophizing issues in front of children. Display confidence in your own ability to cope and your child’s ability to overcome anxiety.
Consider Professional Help
For moderate to severe anxiety, seeking professional support may be needed. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which focuses on changing thought and behaviour patterns, is an effective treatment for child anxiety. Having a therapist work directly with your child gives them tools to manage anxiety themselves.
Anxiety in children is increasingly common, but parents, caregivers, and teachers have an opportunity to make a positive impact.
With compassion, patience, and consistent effort, children can gain control over anxiety and build crucial coping tools for life.
By implementing the Tips for Supporting Anxious Children you see above, you can guide the anxious child in your life toward greater confidence and emotional well-being. Do you have anything to add? If so, please leave me a comment below.
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