How can I help a perfectionist child who is easily frustrated?

Perfectionism in kids can be a form of anxiety. Psychologist Jennifer Hartstein, PsyD, explains what can cause this kind of anxiety, and how to help a kid deal with it.

Transcript

00:00

So you really want to be able to walk through how to modulate anxiety for your child. And that may mean working for 15 minutes

00:08

and taking a 3 minute break, working for 15 minutes and taking a 3 minute break, being able to really check in with how their anxiety is going.

00:15

[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:28

Perfectionism really fits into a problem with anxiety. And the anxiety there is that it's not going to be right.

00:36

It's not going to be OK. And it can become kind of an obsessive behavior that, if you make a mistake on a piece of paper,

00:43

you have to start from scratch. You have to start over. And what that's going to do is it's going to prolong homework. It's going to prolong the time that projects get done.

00:51

And it's going to create a lot of conflict in your home. So you really want to be able to walk through how to modulate

00:58

anxiety for your child. And that may mean working for 15 minutes and taking a 3 minute break, working for 15 minutes

01:04

and taking a 3 minute break, being able to really check in with how their anxiety is going and really learning how

01:11

to tolerate making a mistake. But if they don't have some coping skills on how to handle that, tolerating a mistake isn't going to happen.

01:17

And, again, if it keeps happening and you aren't able to help them, seek some professional advice who are going to give them some real concrete strategies on how

01:24

to handle it. [MUSIC PLAYING]