How Can I Help My Child Overcome Anxiety?

By Author: Penenlope Swinney
Total Articles: 19
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Anxiety problems are common in children, as they grow up. It is important to help ease of their anxiety, so that they can face the challenges in the world. When the anxiety levels are heightened, it is natural for parents to get into the protective mode trying to solve the problems for the kid. But the educators at Childcare Manly, mention that instead of protecting the kids from anxiety, parents must help the kids to learn to manage anxiety. Here are a few ways from the experts at preschool Manly, to help reduce your child’s anxiety –

Stimulate your child to face the fears

Tell your child that avoiding situations that provoke anxiety upholds the nervousness. Rather, if a child faces the fears, the child will learn that anxiety will reduce on its own over time. Human body cannot remain anxious for a long time. It will decrease within 20-45 minutes.

Embrace Your Child's Mistakes and Imperfections

Every parent expects their child to excel in sports, education or in any performance situations. Parents at times, forget that kids need to be kids. So, it is important to tell your child that working ...
... hard is important, but embrace your child as is, and accept their limitations.

Build Positivity

Many a times, children can get lost in negative thoughts. So, it is important to focus on your child’s positive qualities. The more you focus on their positive attributes, it will prompt your child to focus on the same.

Let Your Child Relax

At times, even the fun activities like sports can become stressful for the kids. So, make sure that the activity that your child engages, involves more fun. For this, the kindergarten Manly experts recommend preparing a schedule which comprises of a mix of activities like – playing with toys, practising yoga, having a party, being silly or even putting on a play, with the ultimate goal of allowing your child to enjoy and relax.

Reward Your Child

If you see that your child is facing his/her fears, appreciate them with a reward in the form of hug, praise or gifting something tangible. This will prove to be a motivator to your child for handling the situation, and will help them engage in similar situations more often.

Motivate your Child to Express

When your child says that he/she is scared, don’t say ‘you’re fine.’ It does not help. Instead, ask your child by asking questions like, ‘why are you worried?’ After that have a discussion with your child about the expressed fear.

A child’s anxiety modifies over time. Hopefully the above listed tips will help your child learn to bring down his/her anxiety levels and cope up with any anxiety-provoking situation!