Schools and Teachers

Anxiety and management for teachers

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal feeling that we all experience, children, adolescents, and adults. Anxiety at different stages of child development is expected; however, when anxiety is persistent and excessive in relation to the trigger, it is a cause for concern.

Fear is an emotional response to a real or perceived imminent threat, whereas anxiety is the anticipation of a future threat, real or imagined. Both states activate our nervous system and trigger the ‘fight or flight’ response. In anxiety disorders, this ‘fight or flight’ response is overactive, and is triggered even when there is no real danger. Childhood anxiety is characterised by excessive worry over a variety of day-to-day issues that usually for at least 4-6 months.

Types of anxiety

There are different types of anxiety that children and adolescents may experience:

Separation anxiety is developmentally appropriate for children around 9-11 months and again at 15- 18 months of age as well as the first few days following big transitions, for example, the start of a new school year. Outside of these times, separation anxiety is typified by anxiety behaviours when having to part with their parents or home, such as clinging to their parents, refusing to go to school or sleepovers, trouble falling asleep or sleeping alone.

Generalised anxiety disorder is the excessive worry about different everyday things on a daily basis. Generalised anxiety may be a response prompted by the environment that the child is exposed to, where there is instability, insecurity, poverty, violence or trauma, the risk of anxiety and worry is much higher. A state of anxiety can also be a learned response in children who are exposed to anxious and or fearful adults, particularly if their parents struggle with anxiety and exhibit behaviours thereof at home.

Social anxiety disorder is the fear and worry of what others will think or say about them. This worry frequently occurs during adolescence when peer pressure and social acceptance becomes a developmental priority.

Performance anxiety is becoming more common in schools as children and adolescents are expected to perform well in academics, afterschool activities and sports. With children doing more structured activities and having less play and relaxation time, they have less opportunity to decompress, and this can contribute to anxiety. Additionally, the ‘need’ to excel drives perfectionism and can raise personal expectations to unattainable levels. In the attempt to meet these, children may become anxious and worry about failure and disappointment.

Signs of anxiety

Anxiety in children may look different to that in adults and it is thus important to be able to identify the signs.

Body

Brain or cognitive

Restlessness and irritability

Muscle tension

Shortness of breath

‘Butterflies in the tummy’

Jittery and shaking

Sweating, increased heart rate

Fatigue and poor sleep

Panic attacks

Impaired concentration

Poor school performance

Hypervigilance

Selective mutism

Emotional

Social

Frequent crying

Feeling afraid or nervous

Anger outbursts

Becoming quiet or shy

Not wanting to leave home to go to school or activities

Clinging to parents

Avoidance of social interaction with adults or peers

Avoidance of triggering environments or activities

How to manage anxiety in the classroom

Notice

If you know a particular child is presenting with difficulties with anxiety, try to be aware of the situations, people, words, objects, or times that heighten their anxiety. Notice how the child reacts when they are notice, what signs do they show and what strategies calm them down. Perhaps note these down in a diary to keep track of the triggers, behaviour, and calming strategies so that you can be better prepared to respond to their needs or provide information to a parent or professional.

Listen

It is important that children feel heard and seen. When a child shows signs of anxiety, create time and space to listen to the child and their concerns, acknowledge their feelings and perception of the situation. Bear in mind that the anxiety may seem ‘small’ or irrational to you as an adult, but it is important to focus on their perspective and never reprimand or correct them for their feelings or anxiety experience.

Breath

Deep, diaphragmatic breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, lowers heart rate and creates a calm state. Use breathing boards or visual prompts to help the child take at least three deep breaths and bring their attention towards their breath.

Be mindful

Mindfulness is the art of being focused on the present moment, rather than worrying about the past or future. Bringing children into the present helps them focus and calm down. There is a multitude of mindfulness activities; using the senses, mindfulness activity cards, affirmations.

Create

Being creative brings the mind into the present, reduces worry, and creates calm. Introduce simple creative activities for the child, for example, colouring-in mandalas, tracing pictures, weaving, or beading. More repetitive activities are soothing and creative activities that have instructions, or a starting place are easier to ‘get into’ than those requiring active creative thought when in a heightened anxious state.

Distract

Redirecting a child’s focus is useful strategy to release their focus from the worry. Fidgets, such as poppers, spinners, playdough, marble mazes or pen toppers are a simple and cost-effective way to give children something tangible to use to disperse their irritability, anger or jitters. Alternatively, using music (e.g., binaural beats) or stories can be used to shift their focus onto something other than their concerns.

Move

Movement helps ease muscle tension and release positive hormones that combat the ‘fight and flight’ response. Yoga uses movement patterns and breathing to bring awareness to the body, change state and activate the release of hormones. Yoga can easily be done with the whole class as a ‘brain break’ between activities, at the start of the school day or with a specific child. It can be done on mats or in the chair at the desk

Calm down corner

Have a calm down corner or table in your classroom with calming and mindful resources, including breathing boards, books, sensory regulating toys, emotional regulation images or resources, mindfulness cards and activities.

Routine

Routine and knowing what we can expect from our day and activities is calming, lessening the need to fear for the future. Establishing and maintaining a classroom routine and providing clear task expectations lessens the source of anxiety for many children.

Build emotional literacy

Help the child identify the features of their physical experience and name the emotions that are linked to it, thereby building emotional literacy for future.

Worry monster

Have a worry monster in your classroom. Typically, this soft toy has a zipper mouth with a pouch. The child writes or draws their worries and ‘feeds’ it to the monster. Once the monster has ‘eaten’ it, he takes on the worries and not the child. This is useful with younger children.

How to manage a panic attack

A panic attack can occur as part of anxiety. It is a sudden episode of intense fear when there is no real danger. Panic attacks are frightening, particularly to children.

Characteristics of a panic attack:

Deep sense of danger and fear

Increased heart rate

Shortness of breath and/or chest pain

Sweating or chills

Nausea or stomach cramps

Shaking or trembling

Numbness or tingling

Dizziness or lightheaded

Feeling of detachment from reality

If a panic attack occurs in the classroom or playground, first get the child to a safe space, decrease crowding around them and focus on their wellbeing. Use supportive language and touch, the grounding technique as well as deep breathing to help the child ride out the attack.

Thereafter, address the matter with the peers, explaining what the causes are, the characteristics and how they can help in future.

What to do next

Alert the parents or guardians to the situation and provide them with support.

Assist them by providing information (if you can) about the triggers, situations, times or presentation of anxiety in the child or adolescent.

Have a list of professionals that you can recommend they reach out to in order to access care and assistance for their child and family. These could include: a paediatrician; play therapist or occupational therapist; child psychologist, clinical social worker, or counsellor.

Important note! If a child talks about self-harm, suicide, or abuse, you are obligated by law to notify professionals to help! Contact the child’s medical team or the local social worker ASAP.

Raising mental health awareness in schools

Mental Health awareness starts young. Building emotional literacy in young learners will help create a future culture of the awareness and value of feelings and mental health. Hold open discussions from early education about identifying, naming, and managing big or difficult emotions.

Manage bullying in the classroom and playground context.

Create a supportive school community with designated ‘safe’ people to speak to should a child or adolescent need a confidante.

Focus on positive attributes of all learners and not only on performance (academic or sport-related)

Upskill the staff in your school in understanding anxiety, the signs and causes and practical strategies of how to manage this every day in the classroom. Contact Chatterbox if you would like a teacher training workshop focussed on this.