School can create anxiety in some children. The reasons may be different, as well as the duration of the inconvenience. Some children face school with anxiety only the first few days, others carry a certain discomfort throughout the year.
Sometimes anxiety comes from a bad relationship with some comrades or from the fear, justified or not, of one or more teachers; other times it happens simply because the child has a character that predisposes him to anxiety, because he feels insecure or badly detaches from the family environment.
Whatever the reason and duration of the child's school anxiety, it is important that the parent offers his support so that he can live the school experience well.
Help children manage anxiety
Sometimes the child expresses his school anxiety complaining of imaginary illnesses, which occur regularly in the morning, at the moment of awakening: I have a stomach ache, I have a headache, my head is spinning ... Obviously, in this case, the parent, after checking that the child does not actually have any health problems, he should look for a way to calm him .
Reproaches and threats are counterproductive, understanding and "tactics" are needed. Let us try to understand why the child experiences anxiously the relationship with the school, talking to him and offering him all our support.
If we come to the conclusion that the malaise comes from something that happens in the classroom, we look for a solution. If, for example, the child fears a particularly severe teacher we go and talk to him and we look for a way to reassure the anxious schoolboy; if we have reason to think that our child is being bullied, let's turn to one of the teachers to explain the problem, and so on.
There is a solution to every problem. We must not be afraid of confronting ourselves with the school; after the family, the school is the most important context for the child's not only cognitive, but also emotional and behavioral development . School and family have the same goal and should therefore work together for the well-being of children .
If the child's anxiety stems from the difficulty of detaching from the family environment and is therefore more a separation anxiety, than a school anxiety, probably the best thing we can do is reassure him with all our affection. Let us explain that the school is beautiful because we learn so many things, we make friends, we experience exciting adventures and slowly over time the anxiety will pass by itself, perhaps when the child will have consolidated the relationship with classmates and teachers.
If the child is anxious because he feels insecure, is afraid of making mistakes and does not trust his abilities, we try to help him increase self-esteem; let us not scold him when he makes a mistake, we highlight his strengths and not those of weakness, we do not compare his results with those of his companions.
If anxiety results from a performance that is actually scarce, it could be useful, once again, to contact teachers to better understand how to intervene.
