anxiety in children

Many challenging behaviors that we see from children are the result of anxiety.  Our brain is designed to keep us safe in our environment, but a less developed brain often lacks the ability to discern danger as well as that of an adult’s brain.

Child anxiety may look like a behavioral outburst: yelling, hitting, throwing things.  Child anxiety may look like difficulty separating from an adult, difficulty going to school.  Child anxiety may look like a child who must be able to control their environment or else they will break down emotionally.  Child anxiety may look like a child who is unable to focus on their schoolwork or unwilling to even try. 

Prompting a child to calm down assumes that they have developed skills to self-regulate that they simply may not have access too.  Children may not even recognize that they are feeling anxious; instead, they may just feel compelled to act out. 

I can help children take control of their anxiety by learning to recognize when they are feeling anxious, by learning about unhelpful thoughts and how to change them, and by developing effective coping skills.