Table of Contents
Guidelines for reducing childhood anxiety
Children may lack the resources to adequately cope with stressful or traumatic life events. The experience of a separation, the death of a relative or friend, a natural disaster (fire, flood), a robbery, an accident, etc can overcome the child’s ability to react adaptively. In these cases, parents or persons close to the child.Â1. Reduce the impact of stressful events
- Talk to the child about everything that worries him, how he feels. Allow you to vent and expose all your worries, doubts and feelings. Do not force the child to talk about their feelings, be available when he needs them.
- To act as models of behavior and coping with problems: children learn to act and deal with problems by imitating and adopting as their own the modes of action of people close to them.
- Understand how important the child is to that situation. We should not detract from events that may be inconsequential to an adult: a fight with another partner, a change of teacher, difficulty in some school matter, etc. Maybe significant enough for the child to be concerned.
- Talk to the child about everything he fears. What is troubling you? What is the worst that can happen?
- Adopt an attitude conducive to conflict resolution or problems: what can the child do to solve that problem? How can he do it? Is it in your power to solve it? It is important that parents or caregivers do not take a too directive role: the child must learn to solve their own problems. To solve them does not teach the child to be autonomous, but to depend on the parents or caretakers and to resort to them whenever he has a small setback.
- Be interested in the evolution of the problem.
- Encourage the child, reinforce it by the advances.