Tips for Dealing with Anxious Kids

The intro to this article is long and unnecessarily book-report-ish, but the actual tips, once they finally get to them, are something I wish I could force everyone who ever crossed paths with my kids to read.

Some highlights:

TIP 2: Often in an attempt to form a positive relationship with a student teachers will publicly praise positive behavior. That can backfire, especially with anxious kids who don’t want any extra attention from peers. Private or non-verbal praise is often better.

This is also a thousand percent true for me. Good-naturedly mock me, and we are best friends. Praise me publicly and you are dead to me.

Tip 15: Use data to disprove negative thinking.

Case in point: if my kid comes to you in tears because he thinks he's going to forget his lines in the play, don't fucking lecture him on how important it is that everyone learn their lines. Run the scene with him and find out if he actually already knows all the lines.

Amen sister.

Tip 20: Reward practice or strategy use, not performance. “When I shift the reinforcement to skills, I’ve noticed the skills go up and that’s what makes the difference for the kids who have mental health difficulties,” Minahan said. Ultimately, educators are teaching kids the skills and strategies that they can then use throughout their life when they’re anxious, so rewarding practice makes sense.


I went through what turned out to be a very good SpEd program. In my new gig I'm seeing a lot of young unprepared teachers often overseen by apparently disengaged veteran teachers. I see good ones as well but it looks like many teacher prep programs are missing it.

Griff;967212 wrote:

I went through what turned out to be a very good SpEd program. In my new gig I'm seeing a lot of young unprepared teachers often overseen by apparently disengaged veteran teachers. I see good ones as well but it looks like many teacher prep programs are missing it.

I worked with a wonderful compassionate teacher who was being mentored by an older one who was "one size fits all".

One particular occasion stands out - I was made to feel indulgent when the autistic boy I worked with shoved another boy who had pushed into the line in front of him. It was immediately taken out of my hands and dealt with as a class "issue".

Physical retaliation doesn't work in the real world and is something that needs to be addressed (it was a push; he was 6). To treat it like spite or bullying, when in fact it was a reaction to someone else breaking the rules was not right. Calm, explain. Instead he was treated like a mean boy, and ended up wetting himself. Sigh. Yet the teacher who did so was lovely, and only working on advice she received.

Tip 2 is true for more than just anxious kids. possibly even the majority. Especially past preschool level.........