HOUSTON – Anxiety is at an all-time high among children with the societal pressure of the world, social media, peers, family and friends -- they are also trying to balance succeeding in their education -- such as preparing for the upcoming STAAR test.
KPRC 2 health reporter Haley Hernandez spoke with Dr. Staci Passe with BE SOMEONE Therapy on how parents can detect testing anxiety in their children and strategies to help them relieve them of those fears.
According to research, about 40% of middle and high school students suffer from diagnosable anxiety disorder. Students who are prone to suffer from testing anxiety may also suffer from contributing factors such as ADHD, perfectionism, high achieving, stress, fear of failing and demanding families.
Dr. Passe said anxiety amongst children has been through the roof since the pandemic, and the stakes are even higher with different testing, especially for students who are looking toward college and the need to perform well.
How can parents spot testing anxiety in their children?
According to Dr. Passe, younger children can manifest these symptoms into physical symptoms such as stomach aches, lack of sleep, not feeling well, and being clingy. In older children, they could experience verbal withdrawal, anxiousness, and feeling overwhelmed.
Sometimes, she said it is harder to detect as some children may have internal and irrational thoughts of repeating a grade or failing.
Parents can help manage those symptoms by investigating where the anxiety is coming from.
Here are five strategies for parents to help ease and manage children’s anxiety:
1.) Preparing for test and relaxation strategies, deep breath work, and tactics on relaxing the body.
2.) Incorporate in study sessions and get up and move, walk, and screen time to help associate studying with relaxation.
3.) Have them visualize success, a tactic borrowed from sports psychology.
4.) Teach them to utilize different learning styles such as visual, and audio, paying a tutor or having parents teach or listen to a recording of their professor’s lecture to see what works for them best.
5.) Watch for self-talk and redirect negative talk to more positive
You can watch the full interview in the video player above.