Social Anxiety In Children

Helping Your Child Cope with Social Anxiety

Social anxiety in children is a much more common problem than many think. When children display symptoms of social anxiety, most adults tend to dismiss it as shyness and say that it’s just a part of childhood and will go away when the child matures. Unfortunately, that is not the case for every child because some of them are actually suffering from a child anxiety disorder and need to be treated as soon as possible. Anxiety in children is something to address and the time to start is now.

Now, this is not to say that every shy child in the world has a social anxiety disorder. Many children are just naturally shy, it’s true. So you should be able to distinguish between ordinary shyness and social anxiety in children.

Signs or Symptoms

Some of the tell-tale signs that you might look out for are poor eye contact, frequent crying and tantrums, and lack of interest in going to school and playing with other kids.

When left untreated, social anxiety in children can be a real hindrance to their social growth and they may even take the problem with them all the way into adulthood. This is why it is very important to seek treatment for your child as soon as you find out that he does have the disorder.

Treatment

It’s hard to determine which particular treatment will work best because this will depend on the condition of the child and the assessment of the doctor. However, it is the general opinion that natural remedies are better because they do not cause negative side effects or drug dependency.

According to most child psychiatrists, the best way to deal with social anxiety in children is to simply expose the child to different groups of people. Of course, you won’t want to do this hastily as it can further traumatize the child and make an already bad situation much worse. Instead, do it gradually by setting up ‘play-dates’ for your child with other kids that are their age, for instance. Then you can take them to the park where there are more people, then to larger social gatherings, and so on, until your child eventually becomes comfortable no matter who or how many are around him.

Only if these natural treatments for social anxiety don’t help, then your doctor may recommend medication. As they will advise you have to be very careful as some of these anti-anxiety medications may have side effects or may cause long-term damage to the child’s health.

Your child doesn’t have to live with his problem all throughout his childhood. There are plenty of effective treatments for overcoming social anxiety in children and there is definitely at least one that will be effective for your child.

Child Separation Anxiety – Preschool

Helping Your Child Overcome Separation Anxiety in Preschool

Most children go through some level of separation anxiety, usually between the ages of 8 months to 2 years. Normally, the problem goes away on its own as the child matures but there are still numerous cases of separation anxiety in preschoolers or even older kids.

Sometimes, even kids who have outgrown separation anxiety by the time they are 2 or 3 may experience a relapse when they begin preschool. The main reason for this is because they are suddenly thrown into a whole new world with new people, new surroundings and new experiences, and they might feel overwhelmed by all the changes. The risk of child separation anxiety in preschool is made even worse when the parent or guardian attempts to leave the child in the care of the preschool teachers.

Most Effective Remedies

There is no magical cure that can instantly stop or completely prevent separation anxiety in children, although there are definitely several techniques that you can try that may work very well. The best way to go about it is to familiarize the child with the school environment some time before he actually has to go to school. Take him to see his future school a few times so that he can see what goes on. In fact, seeing the children happily playing and doing various activities in the school usually entices young kids to join in, so he will become excited instead of scared about going to school himself.

Another effective way of preventing separation anxiety in preschool children, is to introduce your child to his future teacher a few days before classes begin. Most preschools allow such orientation sessions because these introductions can build the child’s trust in the teacher, and will definitely make it easier for everybody when it’s time to leave the child during the first day of school. Once classes do start, always make sure that you are waiting outside the door when it’s time for the kids to go home. This will reassure your child that you will always be there after school, hence he won’t feel so anxious about being away from you for a couple of hours.

Finally, it also helps reduce separation anxiety in school if your child has had a lot of practice interacting with different people. Therefore, you should take every opportunity to introduce him to people, particularly children that are around his age. By doing this, you can make him feel more comfortable when he is suddenly surrounded by new faces in school, and he won’t feel nervous or anxious about it at all.

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