This blog is written by the clinicians at Jonah Green and Associates, a mental health practice based in Kensington, MD that provides quality services for children, teens, families, and adults. It is intended as a resource for families who are seeking to expand their knowledge about mental health and mental health services, and also as a resource for families who are seeking quality mental health services, especially in the mid-Atlantic region. Please feel free to post questions and comments on any of the entries as well as on any topics or articles from our companion web site www.childandfamilymentalhealth.com.
Your child is sitting down to take an exam. His teacher or professor walks by, drops the test on his desk, and he immediately starts to panic. His palms are sweaty, and he cannot seem to remember any of the content he studied. His heart is beating quickly, and he’s starting to feel light-headed. He cannot seem to figure out why this always happens when he sits down to take a test. Does this sound like a familiar scenario for your child? If the answer is yes, the cause might be test anxiety.
It’s 11 pm and the homework battle soldiers on. You’re standing in the door frame, trying to convince your 13 year old daughter that it’s time for bed. She has spent the last 6 hours preparing for her science test and the best thing she can do now is rest, but she won’t close the books. Your sweet, stressed, bleary eyed girl is positive that if she sleeps all will be lost and her quarter grades will be unrecoverable. Sound familiar?
Please enjoy this guest post by Jennifer Kogan, a local social worker and therapist. Great ideas for helping kids manage their intense feelings as the pressures of school begin in earnest!
It can be challenging to support your child sometimes if they are wired to be a little on the anxious or intense side. These periods of overwhelm often strike without warning. Sleepovers, tests, teams, all these can trigger anxiety or upset which can lead to worry, sleep problems, and general stress.
As parents, it can be hard to hold these emotions because it just feels like too much sometimes. Or, it could be that our own anxiety gets activated which can make it doubly hard to contain a set of charged feelings. But there are ways to tackle this very common problem. Below is a mind – body toolkit to support kids with their intense feelings:
Spring is here and high school juniors are just now finding letters in their mailboxes that tell them whether a college has accepted them for their incoming freshman class. For many students, an acceptance letter allows them to breathe a huge sigh of relief, not only because they now know where they will wind up, but also because it signifies that the year of applying to college, froth with anxiety, trepidation, self-doubt and possibly tension between them and parents or teachers, is now over. For some students the application process is particularly difficult and stressful – for those who have learning disabilities, or executive functioning deficits, or social anxiety, or performance anxiety, or fear of separation from their parents – the list goes on. And what child doesn’t have some kind of challenge? After all, growing up means that they aren’t there yet.
It’s mid-August, and believe it or not, soon your child will be transitioning back to school! The following ideas m toight be able ease the transition. Many of the suggestions are adapted from Robin Allen, PhD., a behavior specialist and parent educator in Montgomery County, Maryland. [Read more…]