Parent Tips

As promised, here are the next four techniques you could try to help your anxious child:

5. Help Them Go from ‘What If’ to ‘What Is’

Research shows that coming back to the present can help alleviate this tendency. One effective method of doing this is to practice mindfulness exercises. Mindfulness brings a child from ‘what if’ to ‘what is’. To do this, help your child simply focus on their breath for a few minutes.

6. Avoid Avoiding Everything that Causes Anxiety

The flight part of the flight-fight-freeze response urges your children to escape the threatening situation. Unfortunately, in the long run, avoidance makes anxiety worse. Kids who are able to manage their worry, break it down into manageable chunks. Let’s say your child is afraid of sitting on the swings in the park. Create mini-goals on the way to the bigger goal (e.g., First visit: go to the edge of the park, next visit: walk into the park and sit next to the swings, and, finally, get on a swing). Take as many visits as are necessary for your child to feel okay before you try the next step.

7. Help Them Work Through a Checklist

Create a checklist so your child has a step-by-step method to calm down. What do you want them to do when they first feel anxiety coming on? If breathing helps them, then the first step is to pause and breathe. Next, they can evaluate the situation. In the end, you can create a hard copy checklist for your child to refer to when they feel anxious.

8. Practice Self-Compassion

Watching your child suffer from anxiety can be painful, frustrating, and confusing. There is not one parent that hasn’t wondered at one time or another if they are the cause of their child’s anxiety. Here’s the thing, research shows that anxiety is often the result of multiple factors, (i.e., genes, brain physiology, temperament, environmental factors, past traumatic events, etc.). Please keep in mind, regardless of the cause; you can help them overcome it.

Here are two more websites you may find helpful:

• Raising Children– an Australian parenting website.

• Headspace– website for help, support and information about young people and mental health

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for anxiety, there are a lot of great research-based techniques that can help manage it. Here are the first four:

Stop Reassuring Your Child
Your anxious child desperately wants to listen to you, but the brain won’t let it happen. During period of anxiety, there is a rapid dump of chemicals and mental transitions executed in your body of survival. One by-product is that the prefrontal cortex, or more logical part of the brain, gets put on hold while the more automated emotional brain takes over. In other words, it is really hard for your child to think clearly.

2. Highlight Why Worrying is Good

Teach your child that worry is perfectly normal, it can help protect us, and everyone experiences it from time to time.

3. Bring Your Child’s Worry to Life

Create a worry character for your child: e.g. Wally the Worrier. Wally personifies anxiety. Wally lives in the old brain that is responsible for protecting us when we’re in danger. Of course, sometimes Wally gets a little out of control and when that happens, we have to talk some sense into Wally. Personifying worry or creating a character, has multiple benefits. It can help demystify this scary physical response children experience when they worry. It can reactivate the logical brain, and it’s a tool your children can use on their own at any time.

4. Allow Them to Worry

Create a daily ritual called “Worry Time” that lasts 10 to 15 minutes. During the ritual encourage your children to release all their worries in writing. You can make the activity fun by decorating a worry box. During worry time there are no rules on what constitutes a valid worry- anything goes. When the time is up, close the box and say good-bye to the worries for the day.

If you need further support these websites may be helpful:

• Youth Beyondblue– phone 1300 224 636 (24 hour information regarding depression and anxiety)

• MindShift http://www.anxietybc.com/mobile-app an app for iPhones and iPads to assist young people manage their anxiety.

• Mercury– The planet closest to the sun can reach temperatures of 427 degrees Celsius, but also a chilly low of -173 degrees at night.

• Venus– Farther from the sun, but hotter than Mercury, Venus’s surface has an average temperature of 468 degrees; hot enough to melt lead.

• Earth– Our rotation is slowing, but don’t panic. The decrease is only about 17 milliseconds per 100 years, so we won’t have 25-hour days for 140 million years.

• Mars– Looking for a rock from Mars? You can find them here on Earth. Meteorites from the red planet have been discovered in the Sahara and in Antarctica.

• Jupiter– This gas giant has a magnetic field so powerful it draws space debris into its orbit, thus protecting the inner planets.

• Saturn– Saturn is famous for its ring, but they aren’t unique. Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus also possess rings, but they’re harder to see from Earth.

• Neptune– Winds on Neptune can reach a speed of 2414km per hour or more.

• Uranus– All planets rotate, but only Uranus does so on its side. Scientists speculate that a collision with another large object may have caused its tilt.

• Pluto– It was once a planet in our solar system. In 2006 the definition of a planet changed so because its size and location in space, Pluto is now called a dwarf planet.

One of our parents requested we include a list of children’s chapter books in our Newsletter. So here it is. Take this list along to your local library, or browse the web, and have fun finding the books you enjoy. If you know of any books you have enjoyed reading, we would love to hear about them.

Humour: ‘The Treehouse’ series by Andy Griffiths; ‘The Croc Who Ate My Homework’ by Stephen Pastis; ‘Origami Yoda’ series by Tom Andleberger; ‘The Tinklers Three’ series by M.C. Badger; ‘Captain Underpants’ series by Dav Pilkey

Adventure: ‘Time Hunters’ book by Chris Blake; ‘Zac Power’ books by H.I. Larry; ‘Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja’ by Marcus Emerson (the main character is female)

Mystery: ‘Billie B Brown’ series by Sally Rippin; ‘The Curious Cat Spy Club’ by Linda Joy Singleton; ‘Secret Agent Stalward’ by Elizabeth Singer Hunt

Realistic: ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series by Jeff Kinney; ‘Ivy and Bean’ series by Annie Barrows; ‘Everyday Angel’ by Victoria Schwab

Mythology: ‘The Olympian’ series by George O’Connor

Fantasy: ‘Diary of a Minecraft Zombie’ series by Herobrine Books; ‘Whatever After’ by Sarah Mlynowski; ‘The Green Ember’ by S.D. Smith; ‘Story Thieves’ by James Riley; Any book written by Roald Dahl.

One way to help your children start school ready to learn is by helping them expand their vocabulary at an early age. A study reported in the journal Child Development found that children with larger oral vocabularies by age 2 start kindergarten better prepared both academically and behaviorally than others.

Researchers analyzed nationally representative data for 8,650 children. Parents answered a survey on their 2 years olds’ vocabulary, and kindergarten teachers rated such factors as the children’s behavior self-regulation as well as their academic performance.

The data showed that children who had a larger oral vocabulary at age 2 had greater reading and math achievement in kindergarten as well as fewer problem behaviors such as acting out or anxiety-related issues.

So start talking to your kids as early as you can to give them a good start in the future.

Anxiety is the major mental health issue of modern society, with one in four people estimated to suffer from it. Anxiety can also co-exist with mental health conditions like depression, adjustment disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Anxiety symptoms may be managed by following these steps. The first step is to work out both the nature of your symptoms and the possible cause. Once that is done, you can target the symptoms, for example, by practicing relaxation techniques to wave off negative thoughts. Anxious thoughts are one of the most common causes of anxiety, and one good tip is to learn Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which involves challenging negative thoughts not just with positivity but with logic and reason.

Mindfulness, breathing exercises, relaxation, and meditation can also be used to manage bodily symptoms of anxiety such as heart racing, shallow breathing, nausea, dry mouth, and the muscle cramps.

If you or anyone you know is experiencing anxiety symptoms, then the following websites may be helpful:

www.beyondblue.org.au, www.headspace.org.au, www.lifelinehunter.org.au

Children need limits and boundaries. Although they might complain, rules provide a sense of security that helps them learn what to expect from others and how to behave. Follow these guidelines to set effective rules with your family:

Keep rules clear and simple. Don‘t overwhelm kids with long lists of prohibited behavior. Keepjust a few reasonable ones, and state them in clear language. For example,“We turn the TV off at8 p.m.

Set a routine. Create a written daily schedule that sets times for homework, TV, school, playtime,baths, and meals. A definite schedule decreases the potential for arguments and the need to nag.

Praise often. Don‘t wait for a child to violate a rule or misbehave before you give him or her yourattention. When you see children doing something right, make sure you praise them promptly toreinforce positive behavior.

State directions clearly. If the time comes for homework, don‘t hint: “Don‘t you have homework to do?“ Instead, say: “It‘s time for you to do your homework.‘‘

Concentrate on priorities. Focus on one or two specific behaviors at a time, not a lengthy list that no one can remember. You‘ll be more consistent, and you child will learn more quickly and readily.

There are sure-fire methods of ensuring that you can memorize facts, something that students in particular very much rely on, according to cognitive psychologists.

Many teachers already recommend studying up to three nights before an exam or major test, and science agrees with them. Experts say that most people tend to underestimate the number of times they will need to revise something before it actually sticks, with five to seven times being the number recommended by those in the know.

However, it is a bad idea to constantly go over the same bits of the textbook during the one study session.

It is a good idea to break up study sessions into smaller sections and different topics; variety is important to avoid overkill and burnout on any one subject, but some downtime is also essential to make sure the same does not happen with study in general.

Taking regular quizzes, is another excellent method for helping students to retain information.

The brain is like every other part of your body – needing proper exercise and nutrients in order to continue functioning at the optimum level. Junk food has just as adverse an effect on cognitive function and brain power as it does on other areas of our bodies. Around twenty to thirty percent of all the calories we consume are made use of by the brain, meaning it is a very good idea to feed it with the highest quality nutrients.
Physical and mental health can both be improved by a diet that consists of foods that are nutrient dense such as leafy greens like spinach and kale, as well as other forms of similar vegetables. These vegetables help to battle disease by boosting the immune system, while deep water fish like salmon and tuna feature anti-inflammatory properties and essential omega-3 fatty acids that are vital for proper brain function.

The key to creating balance in your child’s life is to establish a sound support system at home where your child is satisfied with their achievements and where they can…