As the rate of children with anxiety climbs steadily, teachers and parents need ways to help children manage their anxiety while at school. This book teaches an understanding of anxiety, how to create a classroom environment that supports positive mental health, and offers a guide for creating a plan for the anxious child.

Every year, more than 68 million students of every age find themselves worrying excessively about their first day of school, even before it begins. Their hearts race, their stomachs turn, and their palms sweat just thinking about getting on the school bus for the first time, that first pop quiz, or that notoriously strict teacher. For parents of these children, nothing can be more upsetting than dropping their kids off on the first day of school, wondering how they will cope. Now, they can stop worrying and start helping. As a seasoned psychotherapist, Diane Peters Mayer has successfully treated hundreds of elementary school students suffering from this common disorder. In Overcoming School Anxiety, she shows parents how to deal with a wide variety of problems, from test and homework anxiety, to bullying, and fear of speaking up in class. Mayer also offers easy-to-learn techniques for children including breathing and relaxation exercises, focusing techniques, and tips on proper diet and exercise that help relieve stress. Filled with real-life examples as well as proven advice for working with teachers, principals, and counselors, this is the only comprehensive guide that will enable every parent to help a child cope, build confidence, and succeed in school.

Provides a guide on how to identify when your child's separation anxiety or school refusal is more than just a phase and offers effective tools to manage your child's anxiety.

This book is full of creative ideas for use with children who have difficulty in coping with change, stress and normal levels of anxiety. Supported by a comprehensive but accessible theory section, the practical exercises are a simple and fun way of helping children to learn healthy stress management strategies. Deborah Plummer offers over 100 activities and games specifically aimed at helping children to build emotional resilience. With a mixture of short, snappy activities and longer guided visualizations, these exercises are suitable for use with individuals or groups, and many are appropriate for use with children with complex needs or speech and language difficulties. This unique photocopiable activity book will be an invaluable resource for parents, carers, teachers, therapists and anyone looking for creative, enjoyable ways of helping children to cope with change, stress and anxiety. It is primarily designed for use with individuals and groups of children aged 7-11, but the ideas can easily be adapted for both older and younger children and children with learning difficulties.

Most children are afraid of the dark. Some fear monsters under the bed. But at least ten percent of children have excessive fears and worries—phobias, separation anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder—that can hold them back and keep them from fully enjoying childhood. If your child suffers from any of these forms of anxiety, the program in this book offers practical, scientifically proven tools that can help. Now in its second edition, Helping Your Anxious Child has been expanded and updated to include the latest research and techniques for managing child anxiety. The book offers proven effective skills based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to aid you in helping your child overcome intense fears and worries. You'll also find out how to relieve your child's anxious feelings while parenting with compassion. Inside, you will learn to: Help your child practice “detective thinking” to recognize irrational worries What to do when your child becomes frightened How to gently and gradually expose your child to challenging situations Help your child learn important social skills This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit—an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.

Managing Anxiety in School Settings dives into the growing topic of anxiety and its implications on students’ emotional and academic wellbeing, providing key insights into how to enable students to be successful inside and outside of the classroom. This book provides the reader with a tangible set of strategies for all grade levels that can be built into individualized anxiety survival toolkits for students to deploy discreetly and effectively both in the classroom and in their daily lives. With real-life examples from Anxious Annie in each chapter, readers build a grounded, fine-grained understanding of anxiety’s causes, different varieties, manifestations, social and learning impacts, and coping strategies. Breakdowns by grade level take into account which strategies your students will be most open to and best served by. School counselors and teachers can use this book to work with students individually, in small groups, classes, or even entire schools to create anxiety survival toolkits to provide practical strategies that help students combat their anxiety for the rest of their lives.

This book sets out therapeutic activities to help children aged 4-12 years and their families to better understand and manage anxiety. It explains how to work with anxious children, providing a framework for assessment and therapy that draws on CBT, ACT and narrative therapy approaches. Lots of practical tips for therapists are included and important developmental considerations are discussed, including adapting therapy for children with developmental difficulties, and working with families and schools. Over 50 playful therapeutic activities are included, which have been developed through the authors' extensive work with children, giving children an arsenal of coping strategies. They focus on key areas such as understanding anxiety, managing anxious thoughts, and building resilience and use readily available, inexpensive materials and downloadable templates which are provided in the book. This is the perfect tool for therapists looking for playful and purposeful ways to work with children with anxiety.