What to Do (and Not Do) When Children Are Anxious

How to respect feelings without empowering fears

Clark Goldstein, PhD, ChildMind Institute

When children are chronically anxious, even the most well-meaning parents can fall into a negative cycle and, not wanting a child to suffer, actually exacerbate the youngster’s anxiety. It happens when parents, anticipating a child’s fears, try to protect her from them. Here are pointers for helping children escape the cycle of anxiety.

1. The goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety, but to help a child manage it.

None of us wants to see a child unhappy, but the best way to help kids overcome anxiety isn’t to try to remove stressors that trigger it. It’s to help them learn to tolerate their anxiety and function as well as they can, even when they’re anxious. And as a byproduct of that, the anxiety will decrease or fall away over time.

2. Don’t avoid things just because they make a child anxious.

Helping children avoid the things they are afraid of will make them feel better in the short term, but it reinforces the anxiety over the long run. If a child in an uncomfortable situation gets upset, starts to cry—not to be manipulative, but just because that’s how she feels—and her parents whisk her out of there, or remove the thing she’s afraid of, she’s learned that coping mechanism, and that cycle has the potential to repeat itself.

3. Express positive—but realistic—expectations.

You can’t promise a child that his fears are unrealistic—that he won’t fail a test, that he’ll have fun ice skating, or that another child won’t laugh at him during show & tell. But you can express confidence that he’s going to be okay, he will be able to manage it, and that, as he faces his fears, the anxiety level will drop over time. This gives him confidence that your expectations are realistic, and that you’re not going to ask him to do something he can’t handle.

4. Respect her feelings, but don’t empower them.

It’s important to understand that validation doesn’t always mean agreement. So if a child is terrified about going to the doctor because she’s due for a shot, you don’t want to belittle her fears, but you also don’t want to amplify them.You want to listen and be empathetic, help her understand what she’s anxious about, and encourage her to feel that she can face her fears. The message you want to send is, “I know you’re scared, and that’s okay, and I’m here, and I’m going to help you get through this.”

5. Don’t ask leading questions.

Encourage your child to talk about his feelings, but try not to ask leading questions— “Are you anxious about the big test? Are you worried about the science fair?” To avoid feeding the cycle of anxiety, just ask open-ended questions: “How are you feeling about the science fair?”

6. Don’t reinforce the child’s fears.

What you don’t want to do is be saying, with your tone of voice or body language: “Maybe this is something that you should be afraid of.” Let’s say a child has had a negative experience with a dog. Next time she’s around a dog, you might be anxious about how she will respond, and you might unintentionally send a message that she should, indeed, be worried.

7. Encourage the child to tolerate her anxiety.

Let your child know that you appreciate the work it takes to tolerate anxiety in order to do what he wants or needs to do. It’s really encouraging him to engage in life and to let the anxiety take its natural curve. We call it the “habituation curve”—it will drop over time as he continues to have contact with the stressor. It might not drop to zero, it might not drop as quickly as you would like, but that’s how we get over our fears.

8. Try to keep the anticipatory period short.

When we’re afraid of something, the hardest time is really before we do it. So another rule of thumb for parents is to really try to eliminate or reduce the anticipatory period. If a child is nervous about going to a doctor’s appointment, you don’t want to launch into a discussion about it two hours before you go; that’s likely to get your child more keyed up. So just try to shorten that period to a minimum.

9. Think things through with the child.

Sometimes it helps to talk through what would happen if a child’s fear came true—how would she handle it? A child who’s anxious about separating from her parents might worry about what would happen if they didn’t come to pick her up. So we talk about that. If your mom doesn’t come at the end of soccer practice, what would you do? “Well I would tell the coach my mom’s not here.” And what do you think the coach would do? “Well he would call my mom. Or he would wait with me.” A child who’s afraid that a stranger might be sent to pick her up can have a code word from her parents that anyone they sent would know. For some kids, having a plan can reduce the uncertainty in a healthy, effective way.

10. Try to model healthy ways of handling anxiety.

There are multiple ways you can help kids handle anxiety by letting them see how you cope with anxiety yourself. Kids are perceptive, and they’re going to take it in if you keep complaining on the phone to a friend that you can’t handle the stress or the anxiety. I’m not saying to pretend that you don’t have stress and anxiety, but let kids hear or see you managing it calmly, tolerating it, feeling good about getting through it.

Related Reading on childmind.org

Behavioral Treatment for Kids With Anxiety

Intensive Treatment for OCD and Anxiety

Back to School Anxiety

How to Help Kids Learn to Fail

How to Avoid Passing Anxiety on to Your Kids

Anxious Stomach Aches and Headaches

Popular on childmind.org

Self-Care in the Time of Coronavirus

How Can We Help Kids With Self-Regulation?

Anxiety and Coping With the Coronavirus

Talking to Kids About the Coronavirus

K-2: Tips for Supporting Learning at Home

Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Parenting Challenges,

Dr. Clark Goldstein is a child and adolescent psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders.

X

Stay Informed

Get the latest news and resources in your inbox.

  • Email

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to LinkedInShare to PinterestShare to Email

Guide to Anxiety Basics

In this guide you'll learn the signs and symptoms of different anxiety disorders, and how they are treated.

Read or Download

Our coronavirus response is reaching families everywhere. Support us.

Donate

We’re proud to be recognized as a financially accountable and transparent organization.

Support Our Efforts

ParticipateDonateShop

Join Us

Join our email list to learn more about the Child Mind Institute and get practical tips, useful information and insights in our newsletters.

  • Email

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Show Footer +Hide Footer -

Child Mind Institute.

Transforming Children's Lives.

General Inquiries Call (212) 308-3118   |  101 East 56th Street, New York, NY 10022

©2020 Child Mind Institute, Inc., a tax-exempt charitable organization (tax identification number 80-0478843) under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All rights reserved.

CloseNecessary Always Enabled

Supporting Families During COVID-19

The Child Mind Institute digital response to the coronavirus includes:

  • Daily Facebook videochats with clinicians

  • Remote evaluations and telemedicine

  • Comprehensive resources for parents

  • On-air experts for media appearances

Access our Coronavirus Resource Center   

CLOSE

Support your students.

Receive practical tips and strategies to better assist your students.

  • Your Email Address*

  • Help us know which emails to send you.

    • Select All

    • Parents, Families, and Caregivers

    • Educators

    • Clinical Care

    • Science, Data and Research

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

No, thanks.