5 Parenting Strategies to Help Your Anxious Child
Anxiety disorders are a common experience for children today. While having an anxious child can be scary and stressful for parents, there are many ways you can help your anxious child cope.
I’m Brittany McBryde Williams, a Child Therapist at Silver River Counseling and here are 5 strategies that parents can use to better support and parent their anxious child.
First, Find out what your child’s anxiety triggers are and avoid them.
It’s important to find out the root of your child’s anxiety. Identifying what those triggers are and avoiding them is a great way to minimize any anxiety attacks your child might have.
This might mean limiting stressful outings, switching up play dates with different friends, or even avoiding certain sensory stimuli. Keeping your child away from potential triggers will help them avoid anxiety attacks, which can be very scary for children.
Second, Make sure they have a safe place to go when they need it.
When your child starts to feel anxious or worried, sometimes the only way to calm them down is with a safe place. A safe place can be anything from their bedroom, to a special anxiety-free corner, to even a small stuffed animal. You can offer your child their safe place when they are feeling anxious.
Third, Encourage them to talk about their feelings with an adult or friend.
Encouraging your child to talk about their anxiety can help them feel like they are not alone. If you notice that anxiety is becoming a problem, you should encourage your child to talk about their anxiety with you, a friend or family member.
Talking through the situation can help your child cope and work through their big emotions.
Fourth, Help them develop positive coping.
Some powerful coping skills are deep breathing, talking through anxiety problems with a friend or family member, exercising, playing games, or even taking a warm bath.
These are all great ways to help your child learn how to cope with and reduce their feelings of anxiety.
Fifth, Be patient.
Don’t rush in or try to fix it their anxiety right away, but instead listen to them.
As a parent, it is important to try and remain calm through the anxiety episode. This will communicate to your child that you are there for them no matter what.
Helping your child work through their anxiety will never happen overnight so it’s best to wait before rushing in with quick fixes.
Sometimes it feels overwhelming to support and parent a child struggling with anxiety.
I specialize in helping anxious children cope with their anxiety giving them strength-based tools to manage these emotions. I also resource parents with tools to support their child when anxiety begins to overwhelm them.
If you or your child needs extra support around feelings of anxiety, reach out and schedule an appointment today. I can help.