How to support anxious children in classroom?

The role of the teacher in the classroom is very important. He/she plays vital role in the lives of the students.
They set the tone of their classrooms, build a warm environment, mentor students, become role models, and listen and look for signs of trouble.

Besides all the problems that can happen in a classroom, anxiety disorder affects a lot of students during learning.

Anxiety begins in childhood and there are a lot of chances that you as a teacher to be, will have children in your class who struggle with anxiety. Anxiety can be more than just worries and can influence classroom performance.

An anxious brain can’t absorb new information or even retrieve previously learned information as effectively as a non anxious brain.

Kids who are worried and anxious aren’t doing it on purpose. The nervous system acts automatically, so phrases like “just relax” or “calm down” aren’t helpful. But with practice, kids can learn to slow down their anxious brains and teachers can learn to help them. Below are seven ways to help calm anxious kids in the classroom.

1. Get Kids Breathing Deep

When people slow down their breathing, they slow down their brain. It is an effective way to lead the whole class in a breathing exercise, when you notice an anxious child in the class. It helps the child who is overwhelmed, and usually a few other kids too. Sometimes, I’ll do it just because the whole class is squirrely and we need to focus. Slow, deep breaths are the key.

2. Get Outside

Being out in nature can also calm an anxious brain. Sometimes just a change of scenery is what makes the difference. Breathing the cool air, or making time to notice chirping birds can also calm an worrier. Asking students to carefully observe their environment can help them turn the focus away from their worries, and on to something more tangible.  “How many different kinds of trees do you see?” “How many different bird songs do you hear?”  “How many different shades of green are in the grass?”

3. Get Kids Moving: Walk and Talk

Exercise helps anyone who is feeling anxious. Anxiety can end up looking like anger. I will use the “walk and talk” method to calm down students. After a couple of loops around the playground, everything would feel a little better.

I will also take my kids for a run, just to change the mood in my classroom.

4. Think Positive

The brain is incapable of producing anxious thoughts while it is producing positive thoughts stemming from gratitude.
If you can trigger a positive train of thought, you can sometimes derail the anxiety.
I will encourage the students to keep a journal and when they seem overwhelmed by negativity or mired in anxiety, I will ask them to re-read their journals.