Kids with anxiety often display common behaviors such as constantly being fearful, avoiding new situations, and experiencing difficulty when separating from their parents. For many anxious kids, these symptoms may have been observable from as far back as when the child was very young. Toddlers who became fearful and upset when away from their parents, or who were highly reactive to sounds and other surprising stimuli, may have been demonstrating early signs of anxiety. Similarly, young children who displayed fears of things such as dogs or new people were probably “prewired” for anxiety. If you want to know the source of that prewiring, look in the mirror and look around at your own family. Anxiety is highly inheritable, and the autonomic nervous systems reactivity that underlies anxiety is of a biological nature.
If you think you have a child with “prewired,” or biologically-based anxiety, do not despair. While you can’t directly change basic biology, there are other strategies to use to help a child who is naturally anxious find ways to better cope with their anxiety. Developing lifestyle habits such as regular exercise, meditation, and healthy eating and sleeping can be useful. Here are 5 articles with tips on how parents can help their kids cope with their anxiety.
Here are five great articles to help you understand your child’s anxiety as well as some helpful tips on how to cope with this anxiety.
How to Help Your Anxious Child
This article, written by Marisa Cohen and Michelle Crouch, is perfect for parents who may be starting to express concern about their child’s anxiety. Cohen and Crouch aim to ease these concerns by including causes and symptoms of, as well as treatments for, anxiety disorders in children.
How to Cope with an Anxious Child
This article, written by Clark Goldstein, shares how to “respect feelings without empowering fears.” Goldstein touches on 10 main strategies for parents to try with their child to break this cycle of anxiety.
Meditation for Child Anxiety: A How To Guide
This guide published on the Children’s Anxiety Institute website is a great starting point for working to incorporate meditation into your child’s life to help them cope with their anxiety.
Using Food to Combat Anxiety in Kids
In this article, William Li touches on some helpful tips for parents about dietary choices that can help reduce a child’s anxiety.
In this article, James Lake shares some helpful tips on how exercise can help a child work through their feelings of anxiety.
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