Children can become afraid when they don’t understand things, which will likely happen often as they age. Children constantly learn and grow, so you must evolve and grow with them. When things are unclear, kids’ fears can amplify and make them anxious. Supporting your anxious child can be challenging when you don’t know where to begin–you can inadvertently make them worse.
Here are some ways you can minimize your child’s anxiety and support them every step of the way.
Talk Through Things
Open and honest communication is essential in your and your child’s relationship. Talking with your child can help you identify what their triggers are. Recognizing their triggers can help you address them and find ways to help. It can help to discuss scenarios and help your child work through their fears and concerns.
You want to ensure that your child knows that their feelings are validated, no matter how outlandish they may seem to you. Respecting your child’s fears is essential to earning their trust–you don’t want them to feel like their concerns aren’t valid.
Kids can experience separation anxiety, where they’re afraid of something happening to their parents when they’re away from them. Cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy can help reduce symptoms of separation anxiety. It’s best to openly and honestly talk to your child about their fears so you can discover where they come from and how to ease their worries.
Provide Healthy Ways To Cope
Teach your child how to effectively manage their anxiety, not try to diminish or eliminate their fears. Don’t try to avoid their triggers, but provide ways for them to tolerate and manage the fear that are triggered instead.
Altogether avoiding their fear can make them worse. Desensitization techniques can help gently expose your child to their fears and help them face them.
Help your child use coping skills like positive self-talk, encouraging themselves that they can accomplish anything. Offer healthy ways to cope with their anxiety like encouraging them to play outdoors or begin writing in a journal.
Playing outside has myriad benefits for all ages, but especially for kids. Kids benefit from unstructured play as it boosts their imagination and creativity.
It helps teach them critical thinking skills that can help alleviate stress and anxiety. It can also help them learn self-regulation which can help moderate emotions and control impulses through adulthood.
Healthy habits can decrease stress levels and minimize anxiety symptoms. Ensure they’re eating a balanced diet, getting plenty of rest and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Help Them Relax
When your child is afraid of something, you might find it challenging to help them calm down because you don’t understand. Recognize that their fears are real, no matter how minor they may seem.
Watch for signs of anxiety in your child because they might not fully comprehend their feelings, making it challenging to express their emotions.
If you have an older child, you might notice that they start to have outbursts of anger or avoid daily activities.
You can teach them deep breathing exercises that increase oxygen levels and clear their minds, which will help them calm down. Guide their breathing by teaching them to breathe in through their nose and out of their mouths.
You can use fun analogies like smelling a dandelion and blowing the petals or smelling hot soup and then cooling it down.
Physical activity can also calm your child down, as can listening to soothing music or playing with your pets. Encourage your child to relax so you can assess the situation calmly and discuss how to manage it next time.
Make Them Feel Safe
Fear and anxiety exist for a purpose–they keep your child safe. You want them to be afraid of sketchy situations and potential danger, but you don’t want their fear to control them. You want their fear to teach them.
Ensure that you distinguish between real threats and things they fear as threats only because they’re new to them. For example, schedules and routines can provide a sense of security and make children feel safe.
If something throws off their schedule, it can make them worry or fear the unknown. However, those are common fears that they should face with bravery. Intense fears of tryouts or peer pressure aren’t common reactions in most children and can cause concern.
Break down big tasks into smaller steps to make overwhelming fears or projects more manageable. Ensure that your child knows you’re always there to comfort and guide them and that they can retreat to their safe space whenever they need.
Helping Your Child Ease Their Anxiety
Children are naturally curious, which can put them in dangerous situations. The world is a dangerous place anyway, so your instincts as their parent can be to protect and shield them from the world.
You cannot protect them from everything as much as you want to, but you can help minimize and manage their fears. Utilize these tips to help your child navigate their journey and reduce their anxiety.