How can I help my child cope with back-to-school anxiety?
Many kids get nervous before heading back to school, but you can help yours deal with anxiety by preparing her in advance. In this video, psychologist Dr. Jennifer Hartstein discusses things you can do to lessen your kid’s back-to-school stress.
Transcript
And the more prepared someone feels, the less anxious they are, because they are in control of their environment. And they're in control of what's going to happen.
[UPLIFTING MUSIC]
Back-to-school is a time of transition. Transitions create anxiety in many teens, kids, parents,
everybody, right? So you want to really think about how to help that. You want to start talking about how
to be prepared as early as possible, not in July, but in the middle of August when you can say, OK, school is coming around the corner.
What do we need to do? How do we need to prepare? And the more prepared someone feels, the less anxious
they are, because they are in control of their environment, and they're in control of what's going to happen. A lot of variables may come up as school starts,
but the more prepared you can be going in, the better off you'll be. Some very concrete ways to navigate
the back-to-school anxiety are to start to prepare early. So get into your back-to-school routines,
getting up at a certain time, planning your morning, getting your day structured. Maybe you can go figure out where the locker is going to be, where the homeroom is going to be,
who the teacher is going to be. And really get yourself starting to think about, with your child, what's coming up.
You can also review what happened the year before, the good stuff that happened, and what they might be excited about going back to school.
So you want to build up the excitement, which is a different kind of anxiety but a much more positive one.
meditation
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