Social Anxiety | How To Help Your Child With School

Does your child have social anxiety? Does your child have school anxiety?

School is right around the corner, how do you help your child handle their social anxiety when school starts?

Butterflies are common on the first day of school, panic attacks are not.

Children with social anxiety have it twice as hard on the first day of school as children without social anxiety.

If your child suffers from social anxiety or severe anxiety, don’t brush it off, by telling them, “It’ll be ok” because they won’t believe you.

Your child “knows” it won’t be ok because their negative thoughts are telling them it won’t be.

They “know” they’ll get on the wrong bus, they’ll go to the wrong classroom, and a million other things that will embarrass them.

How To Help Your Social Anxiety Child With School

Children with social anxiety need to turn off the negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones just as adults with social anxiety need to do.

Do they have certain “school friends” they’ve missed? Have them concentrate on finding this friend and inviting him over after school.

Whether it’s big or small, if your child has one thing they like about school or something they miss about school, or something they are looking forward to, have them focus on that.

If there’s absolutely nothing, invent something. For younger children, you could make a bet that their teacher will be wearing blue, or their desk will have a stapler, or something that will occupy their thoughts.

I’m not a professional, but I have suffered from social anxiety since I was very young. I do know the worst thing you can say is, “It’ll be ok” because I “knew” for a fact it wouldn’t.

Shy Child? You Could Be Wrong!

Are you sure you just have a shy child? You could be wrong! Your shy child could actually have social anxiety. Well- meaning parents and teachers often over-look the signs of social anxiety in children, or attribute them to something else... shyness, lazy, tired, etc.

If your child seems very shy, you really need to start paying closer attention, and asking a lot of questions. If it is something deeper, you will want to take some form of action immediately to help your child.

Some signs are a little more obvious that your shy child has something more, like:

• Consistently not speaking in front of class or in any other social situation
• Consistently getting physically sick before any social situation
• Making up excuses to avoid any social situation

Some signs are not clear that your child is more than just shy, like:

• Consistently missing lunch at school (fear of eating in front of others)
• Poor report card comments due to no participation in class (fear of answering questions, etc)
• Poor grades (fear of asking the teacher for help)

You really need to talk to your child and ask a lot of questions. Really listen to the answers, and don't dismiss it as just having a shy child when it looks like it could be a form of social anxiety.

So, are you sure you just have a shy child? Can you, at the stake of your child, afford to be wrong?