Anxiety and Education

Statistics presented by Dr Jerome Schultz, a neuropsychologist at Harvard University, at a conference on Learning Disabilities in California this February, revealed shocking numbers showing the increase in children experiencing anxiety in North American schools. 25.1% of children experience anxiety, 10% Attention deficit disorder (ADD), 10% learning disabilities (LD) and 1/55 are diagnosed with Autism. 80% of children experience depression and anxiety.

Lots of children have combinations of diagnoses.

This means that a large part of a child’s day is spent feeling out of control and incompetent. The entire body and mind are affected, resulting in what Schultz refers to as ‘a chemical soup’ of stress, anxiety and avoidance. This often creates behavioral problems and makes them cognitively inflexible.

What is needed is an understanding of the relationship between stress and learning. We need to know why kids with learning disabilities and ADD, for example, are more vulnerable to stress. We need to challenge terms like ‘lazy and unmotivated’, and we need to know that kids have control when they feel competent. Often, children need a break from their own anxiety.

Signs of anxious children include being easily frustrated, complaints of stomach aches and headaches, trouble breathing, fears, they cry excessively, strive for perfection and worry a lot. They are also hyper-vigilant. More subtle signs include difficulty completing their work, being irritable, over reactive, behavioral infringements, and displaying anger.

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A good approach according to Dr Schultz in taking kids from Stress to De-Stress is the De-Stress Model:
1. Define the situation and understand the condition, for example, what is a learning disability or what is ADD?
2.Educate the child about the impact of the condition. Use a few words to describe a complex process. Speak less without using jargon and wait.
3.Speculate, looking ahead for the strengths and weaknesses. Ask questions like, 'what’s going to get in the way of doing this assignment well?’ and ‘what do I need to do this assignment well?’ Here, the child needs to be helped to be his or her own great advocate.
4.Teach the child strategies to maximize success. Developing skills for competence will lead to success in a child who is anxious.
5. Reduce the threat to neutralize the risk. For example, if working in a big group induces stress, have the child work in a smaller group. If the small group induces anxiety as they fear being called on, then allow them to work in a bigger group setting. This will help replace doubt with confidence.
6. Facilitate exercise as it plays an important physiological role in affecting performance in a positive way.
7. Use humor in situations where children are anxious as an important strategy to minimize their stress.

The above strategies need to be embraced within a strong framework of mindfulness practice, to harness the power to minimize stress and anxiety, leading to improved attention and numerous other benefits. My next installment will focus on Mindfulness, a practice gaining ground in North American institutions.