How does anxiety affect child development

Anxiety in children - NHS

Just like adults, children and young people feel worried and anxious at times.

But if your child's anxiety is starting to affect their wellbeing, they may need some help.

What makes children anxious?

Children can feel anxious about different things at different ages. Many of these worries are a normal part of growing up.

From the age of around 6 months to 3 years it's very common for young children to have separation anxiety. They may become clingy and cry when separated from their parents or carers. This is a normal stage in a child's development and should stop at around age 2 to 3.

It's also common for preschool-age children to develop specific fears or phobias. Common fears in early childhood include animals, insects, storms, heights, water, blood and the dark. These fears usually go away gradually on their own.

There may also be other times in a child's life when they feel anxious. For example, many children feel anxious when going to a new school or before tests and exams. Some children feel shy in social situations and may need support with this.

When is anxiety a problem for children?

Anxiety becomes a problem for children when it starts to get in the way of their everyday life.

If you go into any school at exam time, all the children will be anxious, but some may be so anxious that they do not manage to get to school that morning.

Severe anxiety like this can harm children's mental and emotional wellbeing, affecting their self-esteem and confidence. They may become withdrawn and go to great lengths to avoid things or situations that make them feel anxious.

What are the signs of anxiety in children?

When young children feel anxious, they cannot always understand or express what they are feeling. You may notice that they:

become irritable, tearful or clingy
have difficulty sleeping
wake in the night
start wetting the bed
have bad dreams

In older children you may notice that they:

lack confidence to try new things or seem unable to face simple, everyday challenges
find it hard to concentrate
have problems with sleeping or eating
have angry outbursts
have a lot of negative thoughts, or keep thinking that bad things are going to happen
start avoiding everyday activities, such as seeing friends, going out in public or going to school

Find out more about the symptoms of anxiety on our page about anxiety disorders in children.

Why is my child anxious?

Some children are more likely to have worries and anxiety than others.

Children often find change difficult and may become anxious following a house move or when starting a new school.

Children who have had a distressing or traumatic experience, such as a car accident or house fire, may have anxiety afterwards.

Family arguments and conflict can also make children feel insecure and anxious.

Teenagers are more likely to have social anxiety than other age groups, avoiding social gatherings or making excuses to get out of them.

Find out more about social anxiety.

How to help an anxious child

If a child is experiencing anxiety, there are things that parents and carers can do to help.

First and foremost, it's important to talk to your child about their anxiety or worries. Reassure them and show them you understand how they feel.

If your child is old enough, it may help to explain what anxiety is and the physical effects it has on our bodies. It may be helpful to describe anxiety as being like a wave that builds up and then ebbs away again.

As well as talking to your child about their worries and anxiety, it's important to help them find solutions.

For example, if your child is worried about going to a sleepover, it is natural to want to tell them not to go. However, this could mean your child feels that their anxiety will stop them from doing things.

It's better to recognise their anxiety and suggest solutions to help them, so they can go to the sleepover with a plan in place.

Other ways to ease anxiety in children

teach your child to recognise signs of anxiety in themselves
encourage your child to manage their anxiety and ask for help when they need it
children of all ages find routines reassuring, so try to stick to regular daily routines where possible
if your child is anxious because of distressing events, such as a bereavement or separation, look for books or films that will help them to understand their feelings
if you know a change, such as a house move, is coming up, prepare your child by talking to them about what is going to happen and why
try not to become overprotective or anxious yourself
practise simple relaxation techniques with your child, such as taking 3 deep, slow breaths, breathing in for a count of 3 and out for 3.
distraction can be helpful for young children. For example, if they are anxious about going to nursery, play games on the way there, such as seeing who can spot the most red cars
turn an empty tissue box into a "worry" box. Get your child to write about or draw their worries and "post" them into the box. Then you can sort through the box together at the end of the day or week

Find out more

Young Minds: supporting your child with anxiety
Health for Teens: practical advice about dealing with anxiety

When should we get help?

If your child's anxiety is severe, persists and interferes with their everyday life, it's a good idea to get some help.

A visit to a GP is a good place to start. If your child's anxiety is affecting their school life, it's a good idea to talk to their school as well.

Parents and carers can get help and advice about children's mental health from Young Minds' free parent helpline on 0808 802 5544, from Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4pm.

Find out more about treatments on our page about anxiety disorders in children.

How Does Anxiety Affect Children's Learning?

Anxiety Affects Children’s Learning in Many Ways

Children can be prone to anxiety, just like adults. Unfortunately, they often lack the words to describe their anxiety so parents may not be entirely aware of it. When children have to deal with their anxiety on their own, it can affect their learning in school and other aspects of life.

So how does anxiety affect children’s learning? There are a number of ways that anxiety can impair their ability to learn.

Anxiety Makes Kids Uncomfortable

One of the main ways that anxiety can lead to problems is by making your child uncomfortable and distracts from what they could be learning. This can have fairly far-reaching effects.

An uncomfortable child is a distracted child. Unfortunately, they may not understand why they’re feeling uncomfortable or distracted. This can lead to fidgeting or other behavior that may get them scolded, which can compound their anxiety.
Being uncomfortable impairs their concentration.
Their anxiety could make them feel isolated or estranged from other children. This could adversely affect their social life, which could further dampen their education.
Anxiety can make children engage less in their education and learning (not wanting to answer a teacher or speak in front of others).

Anxiety Affects Memory

Research has shown that anxiety can have a tangible effect on our working memory. People have a harder time retaining information when they’re anxious. The discomfort and pervading presence of anxiety tends to override other cognitive functions.

Anxiety Impairs Thought Processing

Anxiety doesn’t just affect a child’s memory, it affects their entire thought process. As mentioned, anxiety tends to take precedence over other cognitive processes. This means that your child may not be able to coherently think when they’re anxious.

This can make it difficult for them to follow a lesson, articulate answers to questions, or form sentences when socializing with other students. All of these issues can combine to create a negative impact on your child’s schooling.

Anxiety Upsets Children

This is especially true since anxiety is so difficult for a child to identify. If you’ve struggled with anxiety, then you likely remember how long it was before you actually recognized it for what it was.

Unfortunately, most children don’t yet have a name for this strange feeling of discomfort and discontent that they’re feeling. This makes it hard for them to communicate and can make them upset.

Anxiety Causes Avoidance

Naturally, kids don’t want to feel anxious. They will likely go to great lengths to avoid situations which make them feel anxious.

If they feel anxious at school, then they may become more prone to skipping school. They may also avoid doing homework or try to think of excuses to get by without it.

Since children often don’t have a way to simply explain that they don’t want to go to school because it makes them anxious, their concerns are often unheard by parents. Children who are forced to go to school despite their anxiety may develop resentments, and the anxiety may grow worse.

Conclusion For How Anxiety Affects Children’s Learning

Anxiety is a problem that affects both children and adults. Children may find that anxiety creates a number of difficulties for them at school or in other learning environments. Understanding how anxiety impacts their learning is important if you want to learn how to help them manage the problem.

Dr. Sean Paul, MD is a child, teen and adult psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety as well as other mental health conditions. He see patients both in his office as well as via online psychiatry.

School anxiety in children - article - Corporation Russian textbook (Drofa-Ventana publishing house)

By what signs can a teacher suspect high anxiety in a child? The child becomes restless, confused, nervous, may explode over trifles or start crying, makes an adult want to take care of him and calm him down. What can be opposed to anxiety, what is its antipode? Security, confidence, resilience, self-confidence, peace of mind. What feelings does anxiety bring with it? Feelings of helplessness, disorientation, feelings of loneliness, alienation, fear and despair. How does school anxiety appear, what can be done about it, when should adults start worrying? Let's figure it out.

Meaning of anxiety

This experience has a benefit - its task is to make a person more receptive, cautious and attentive in a period of danger. But sometimes this feeling sticks to us like a shadow: when everything is fine, but cats scratch our souls, and we are uncomfortable and restless. From constant tension, the psyche is exhausted due to excessive mobilization. Then anxiety from useful and functional becomes pathological, maladaptive, making it difficult to navigate.

Behavioral manifestations of anxiety: distraction, tearfulness, isolation, outbursts of aggressiveness, disorientation, agitation. External signs are fussiness, restlessness, intense facial expressions.

What processes in a child's life cause anxiety?

1) Adaptation to school: the child spends a lot of energy to navigate in a new environment for him, everything new frightens and increases anxiety.

2) Lack of support at school. You can recall the famous expression from the cartoon: "let's be afraid together", being afraid with someone together is easier than alone. If the child failed to find a comrade at school, and there is no one to rely on, the child's tension grows.

3) Chaos, inconsistency of adults, unclear rules in school life, sudden changes increase anxiety in children. When there is order, when life is predictable, we can relax. When everything is in its place, when the boundaries of what is permitted are clear, the child is calm. In chaos and sudden change, fear intensifies in any person and the need for security grows.

4) Excessive demands on a child from adults give rise to fears and uncertainty, just as a child can expect more from himself than he really can. Fear of evaluation, fear of being ashamed, fear of embarrassment, fear of failing - all these are companions of anxiety.

5) Conflicts at school, bullying, aggression from others greatly affect the quality of life of a student. Will we feel safe when we are surrounded by unfriendly or aggressive people? No. So are children, they are very sensitive to the atmosphere at school, and if there are conflicts in the class, if someone behaves aggressively, if bullying occurs, all this increases anxiety.

6) Losses of loved ones, sudden changes in a child's life, moving, conflicts at home - all this no doubt greatly affects children. The world of a child in crisis events loses stability.

Anxiety neurosis

As a result of high anxiety, fear is reinforced, stuck in stress, thoughts are reinforced that the world is dangerous, and I can’t handle it. Neurosis causes distortions in thinking and low self-esteem. The thoughts of a child in this state are cyclical: he thinks a lot about the catastrophes that await him ahead. These can be bad grades, flunked exams, destroyed relationships with the class, calling parents to the principal, and other troubles. If a child has an anxiety neurosis, this becomes a problem for parents and a teacher: the child is overly worried, shrinks, and is confused. This happens when the level of anxiety has ceased to be working, but has become excessive and contributes to the child's maladaptation at school. This condition causes emotional distress to the child and psychological help is needed.

The impact of anxiety on a child's school performance

How does anxiety affect a child's performance in school? The work level of anxiety helps the child to get ready, force himself to study, prepare for classes, and helps to increase academic performance. If the level of anxiety is excessive, then the child, on the contrary, finds it difficult to collect his thoughts. He is distracted, frightened, his actions are chaotic and ineffective, his thinking is confused. All people have anxiety tension - this is a normal functional state, it is impossible and pointless to try to completely get rid of anxiety. But some people tolerate stress well, while others, on the contrary, are hard to bear, get very scared, and find it difficult to calm down. Why is that?

Factors contributing to high anxiety:

1) Excitability, mobility of the nervous system, immaturity of the cerebral cortex (low arbitrariness, flashes of affect).

2) Highly sensitive nervous system: children find it difficult to tolerate new things, slowly adapt to people, feel anxiety more acutely.

3) Conflict relations with parents or in the family as a whole.

4) Too high expectations from the child's progress.

5) Unsuccessful previous experience of adaptation to a school or team (offended in kindergarten, psychological trauma, etc. ).

Factors that help to tolerate anxiety states well:

Hardiness, stability of the nervous system, adequate self-esteem, self-confidence, maintaining relationships with significant adults, stability of life.

What can cause anxiety in children?

Anxiety is caused by the instability of the environment and the inconsistency of adults, when it is not clear who and what you can rely on, when there is no clarity, when there are high expectations from the child, and little support. High anxiety stress means there is no balance of support and pressure in a child's life. A strong wind cannot break strong branches, but it will break delicate and fragile trees. So it is with the psyche of a child, if the child is impressionable, sensitive, excitable - adults require a large supply of support and patience, as well as consistency. And if such a child is deprived of the support of loved ones, or is little supported, then he becomes especially vulnerable to anxiety.

Anxious tension is connected with the boundaries of the child: how clearly he understands the rules of the school, at home, how clearly he understands his capabilities and his limitations. If there is chaos around the child, inconsistency, if the people around him are inconsistent: either they give the child complete freedom, then they attack with demands - the answer to this confusion will be increased anxiety.

In addition to boundaries and lack of clarity, a child at school may be anxious simply because he can’t figure out school life and adapt in any way. Orientation is an important task, situations at school can be difficult and new for the child. Anxious tension appears in order for the child to be on the alert, to be turned on, to be attentive. The stage of adaptation to school directly provokes increased nervous tension in children. But over time, anxious anxiety should decrease in the process of adaptation to school. The better the child is oriented, the higher his resilience and stability, the lower the level of school anxiety will be. If the level of anxiety goes off scale, this greatly complicates adaptation, the child is poorly oriented, feels lost.

See also:

Co-dependent mother. How to work as a teacher
Consequences of parental codependency for a child
Child bullying as a form of violence. The problem of child bullying (bullying) at school
How can a teacher protect himself from parents' slander?
How to discipline a child?

What symptoms indicate that the level of anxiety is excessive?

You may notice that the child seems to have gone back in time again, and behaves like a smaller one. That is, the child regresses from stress at school: he cries, gets very frightened, clings to an adult, asks for protection, although shortly before that, all these signs might not have been. Adults may also notice that old fears have returned or new ones have suddenly appeared.

What can be done to support a child with high anxiety?

Help for a child with high anxiety may include: the attitude of the teacher, communication with parents, as well as psychological assistance.

How can a teacher help a child with anxiety?

Offer help: ask if there are any difficulties in the subjects or the child does not understand something in the organization of the school, there are difficulties with classmates. You can offer, while maintaining confidentiality, to talk about the difficulties that the student is experiencing.

How can parents help?

Parents can help by strengthening their child's self-confidence, suggesting different ways to spend time together, inventing and suggesting activities for the child that can fill him with strength and confidence.

Psychologist help:

If the family has the opportunity, then with high anxiety, it is worth seeking help from a child psychologist. Many areas of psychological assistance are effective in dealing with children's fears and anxiety: psychodrama, sand therapy, play therapy, child psychoanalysis.

Sometimes simple activities help to calm down - it can be any sport in which the child is successful, creative activities: drawing, designing, modeling, or just walking the dog that the child likes.

How can the situation with high voltage in a child worsen?

Seeing that a child is unsuccessful and does not cope is a test for parents. Sometimes it scares and makes the parent feel shame, and doubts: what did he, as a parent, do wrong? It is important to remember that a child's anxiety is not the end of the world, often these are temporary difficulties that the child will be able to overcome over time. What should not be done? Put pressure on the child and shame him for not coping, that he is afraid and worried. From this, the tension of the child will only grow, and to this will be added the sadness of the child that he let his parents down.

There used to be an opinion: to teach a child to swim, you need to throw him into the depths, and let him swim up. With anxiety, this approach is ineffective. If we deprive a child of support and a reliable rear, and throw him into the thick of frightening events, we can end up with either an anxious neurosis or a violation of attachment to adults. The child may conclude that his “rear” is unreliable, that his parents cannot be relied upon, cannot be trusted, and that he can only rely on himself. In this case, the child becomes isolated and there is a feeling that the child is now coping with anxious tension better. In fact, the situation may not change. The child may also continue to be frightened and worried, but now he will not turn to adults for help and protection, as he has lost confidence in them.

Prevention and correction of anxiety in a child:

1) It is important not to create a problem story around the child, not to treat anxiety as a constant and integral feature of the child’s character: “He is nervous”, “he is shy”. Instead, you can use respectful adjectives that describe the essence of the problem, for example: our child needs a lot of strength to adapt to school, it is difficult for him to cope with the flow of changes, with novelty.

2) The difficulties of the child and his anxiety are a signal that now more than ever it is important to maintain and strengthen contact with the child, increase trust, and spend time together.

3) In addition, parents can create an alternative story: notice even the most insignificant episodes when the child coped with the anxiety state, coped with anxiety. It is good to notice this and fix it: you can record, photograph, create a memory of these episodes, you can try to draw comics of these events together or create certificates for the child. When we notice that a child is coping with his anxiety, we support his self-respect, reinforce his faith in himself and his strength.

4) You can come up with a training program for the skill of coping with anxiety together, for this there is a special application on the phone "kids'skills".

School anxiety is common. Stress or sudden changes in school life are fertile ground for anxiety. On the one hand, anxious tension helps children to be collected and diligent in their studies. But when the level of anxiety is excessive, exhaustion of the nervous system is inevitable, and the effectiveness of learning will fall from this. It is important that children at school have sources of support: a good relationship with someone in the class, with a teacher, interesting activities and pleasant memories associated with the school. Clarity and care help children cope well with their anxiety - for this it is important that children are explained the order of school life, school rules. Particularly anxious children are noticeable, they are easily upset and frightened, and sometimes this feature of them becomes the subject of ridicule of others. It is important for adults to broadcast that worry and anxiety are not scary, that all people often worry, even adults and self-confident people. Any person has the right to not cope with something, to be afraid of something. Our anxiety does not make us bad people, and it is impossible to get rid of it completely. It is important to convey the values of respect for other people's weaknesses and the offer of help and care to those who need it.

Anxiety in children - causes, symptoms and treatment

Definition and explanation of anxiety
What is the danger of increased anxiety
Types
Causes of
Diagnostics
What to do: advice to parents

Among all the problems in child psychology, increased anxiety in a child stands out. More often than not, only behavioral disorders occur. In general, clinical signs of anxiety can be detected in almost 10% of children of preschool and school age, and the numbers are steadily increasing.

Anxiety is typical for children of both sexes, but there is a difference in the intensity of its experience and the scope of possible factors. So, if we are talking about preschoolers and elementary school, boys are more anxious, and in secondary school and puberty, girls are more likely to be anxious. For boys, the most disturbing areas are violence and the possibility of punishment, for girls - relationships with relatives and strangers. Source:
I.I. Khaprenkov. The problem of studying anxiety in children from the point of view of developmental psychology // Eurasian Scientific Journal, 2016, pp. 302-303.

In adolescence, anxiety can have a mobilizing effect, motivate to certain activities. But for preschoolers or children in elementary school, increased anxiety only affects negatively. If children are constantly afraid of mistakes, trying to control themselves, this leads to problems in daily activities. In addition, constant anxiety and anxiety in children can significantly affect the level of self-esteem, underestimating it. Often, the child's constant anxiety may indicate difficulties with emotional adjustment, an adequate response to certain social situations. This provokes uncertainty in their strengths and capabilities.

Definition and explanation of anxiety in children

We all experience fear from time to time - both quite real and irrational, associated with our thoughts and feelings. This is one of the mechanisms for the survival of man as a species. Children at different ages are dominated by certain fears associated with the stages of their psychological development and the acquired experience of socialization. So, at an early age, fears of pain, darkness or objects, sounds predominate in children, at preschool age there is often a fear of death, younger students are typically afraid that they will lose the respect and appreciation of their parents and others. For adolescents, the fear of loneliness, enclosed spaces, and crowds is typical. But it is important to determine where ordinary fears and anxieties turn into pathology . Episodic fears and anxiety are the norm, they are always tied to specific circumstances. But the pathological level of anxiety in a child is a stable condition with clinical symptoms, which is not tied to specific circumstances and real threats to life and health. That is, a child with pathological anxiety is always worried, even when there are no reasons for this, he cannot relax, he is always tense.

Why increased anxiety is dangerous

Excessive anxiety of children leads to overwork, decreased performance, reduces the chances of revealing all the talents of the child. The resources of the body are spent on the suppression of emotions and fears, and not on productive activity . If the problem is not solved, it can result in neurosis, depression and personality changes. In addition, full communication with others - peers and adults - suffers. Such children are more likely to become dependent on leaders, they can become members of not the best companies.

Types of anxiety

It is important for a psychologist to identify the type of anxiety in children. There is situational anxiety - an emotional state caused by external factors. The second type is personal anxiety, a stable trait, an individual feature. It manifests itself as a tendency to excessive, frequent and strong experiences, anxiety due to various circumstances.

Moderate anxiety in certain situations is necessary and useful, but if it goes beyond rational boundaries, this is already a maladjustment reaction that disrupts the organization of the child's behavior and activities.

Causes of anxiety in a child

The condition can be provoked by serious events in a child's life: the death of loved ones, the divorce of parents, failures in school. The risk of anxiety is especially high if these events influence together, burdening each other. But often the problem of children's anxiety lies in the parents themselves or adults who constantly communicate with the child, in the methods of education, the anxiety of the parents themselves, who express it with the baby.

Types of parents who can provoke problems for children:

Nesting parents. They try to protect children from any problems and dangers. Due to hyper-guardianship, children cannot be independent, feel defenseless before the world and cannot achieve success on their own.
Parents-projectors, who themselves have not achieved much success in life, are trying to realize them in their child. Or another option - people with a high position in society require their offspring to comply with the status. The desire to adjust the child to ideals leads to anxiety, the baby is afraid to disappoint his parents and not justify their hopes.
Spartan parents. They want by hook or by crook to educate character and will, too "tightening the screws." They ignore or ridicule the problems of children, which leads to the fact that the child feels like a failure. Source:
O.A. Andrienko. Fears and anxiety in children of primary school age // Humanitarian Balkan Research, 2019, vol. 3, No. 2 (4), pp. 63-65

There are also mixed types of parents, as well as grandparents, older brothers and sisters who influence the child. It is also worth highlighting three types of special requirements that can lead to internal conflicts in the child's personality, which serves as a provocateur of increased anxiety:

Requirements that contradict each other. When parents cannot agree among themselves, or when the wishes of the parents go against the school rules.
Requirements that are too high or inadequate for the age and abilities of the child. For example, if a child is not capable of sports achievements due to anatomy and physiology, and parents certainly want to make him a sports star.
Negative (or negative) demands that humiliate the honor and dignity of the baby, emphasizing his dependence on the decisions of adults. For example, male fathers demand to stop being capricious, otherwise they will not buy toys for the child or will not take it with them.

Anxiety diagnostics

In order to start overcoming anxiety in children, it is important to correctly and timely recognize the problem. Most children do not tell their parents about problems, and teenagers deny any trouble at all. Therefore, along with changes in mood and behavior, it is important to note external symptoms in a child: chills or hot flashes, sweating, hand tremors, increased heart rate, shortness of breath, muscle tension. Children may complain of chest pain, numbness in the limbs, headache, dizziness, or lightheadedness.

To diagnose anxiety, you can use the Lavrenteva and Titarenko scale, as well as the CMAS criteria. They involve a number of questions. Each affirmative answer is 1 point. Questions relate to the child's behavior, his emotions, communication with peers, statements. If, after completing the survey, almost the maximum scores (up to 15-20) are scored, the child has increased anxiety. With an average sum of points (up to 7-14), the degree of severity is average, up to 6 points - the risks are low.

What to do: tips for parents

Having learned about the problem, there is no need to worry and panic, especially with a child. It is necessary to systematically work with children to reduce anxiety. As you grow older, the problem gradually weakens, but you should not wait for everything to go away on its own. Otherwise, by an older age, this can result in depressive disorders, motivation and life success will decrease.

There are a number of tips for relieving anxiety in children that parents should keep in mind.

First of all:

You can not threaten the child, including physical punishment or unrealistic actions ("I will give you to strangers if you do not obey," etc.). Children take their parents' words seriously.
Give up screaming, swearing at the child, especially in front of other people.
You can not use derogatory expressions and insults, they reduce the self-esteem of children.
It is worth abandoning the practice of comparing a child with other children, no matter how this comparison is (positive or negative).
You should not constantly criticize the child, it is better to translate it into the category of advice (but in moderation) or instructions.
There is no need to make excessive demands on the child, you always need to take into account his individuality.
Give up the practice of apologizing for any wrongdoing. It is important that children honestly explain the reasons for their behavior.
There is no need to demand courage, children need to get used to the new environment or people.
It is not necessary to force the child to compete with others, especially in those areas where he is not strong.
You can not question the authority of other people (coach, teacher at school), demanding that the child listen only to you.

To help eliminate anxiety, parents need to make an effort to connect with the child and change their own behavior. It is important to address the baby by name, look into the eyes when talking, increase the volume of affectionate touches - all this increases the level of trust. Discuss the successes of the child with other family members more often, look for reasons for praise, even in small things.

It is important to allow the child to communicate with friends in his home, to arrange holidays with them. This is extremely important for socialization.

In punishments and rewards, one must be consistent, if one thing was promised, one cannot do something completely different on another day.