In our previous blog post on anxiety, we clarified that it is a normal emotion that we all have to deal with from time to time. However, we recognised that anxiety can become a problem when it is severe and leads to significant distress for children or has become disruptive to their daily functioning for longer than a few weeks.
So, why is it so important that schools are clued up on recognising anxiety and supporting children and young people who are struggling with it? Firstly, anxiety disorders are amongst the most common causes of childhood psychiatric conditions (Public Health England, 2016), schools therefore have a really important role to play as they are well-placed to recognise signs due to the fact that children spend a great deal of their time in the classroom. School staff are well-placed to help with identifying anxiety early, and putting in good, holistic support for these children. Schools also have the necessary contacts to refer onwards where necessary.
As we mentioned briefly in the previous blog post, anxiety manifests in many different ways. It is essential that staff are aware of this so they are able to acknowledge that some behaviours that may seem ‘aggressive’ could actually be an anxious child who is experiencing a ‘fight’ response to a trigger. The child that tends to hide under the table when it gets to loud may be having a ‘flight’ response, and the child who sits at their desk during a test and whose mind goes seemingly blank may be experiencing a ‘freeze’ response. The fight, flight, freeze responses are normal reactions to fear and anxiety. In the caveman era, when facing a deadly threat (such as a predator), this fight/flight/freeze system was incredibly effective in helping us to escape or play dead! However, in the modern day, our sources of anxiety are very different, but our fight/flight/freeze response is the same despite the majority of threats being non-lethal. So, although physiological responses such as an increased heart rate, tremors and butterflies in our stomach may have been useful as they were all part of the body pumping more blood to the main muscle groups (in order to get away!), they are less useful when sitting down to do a test for example. It is therefore essential that we are supporting children in recognising their anxiety, understanding what it is, and helping them develop ways of effectively managing it – remember, the goal is not to get rid of anxiety, but to manage problematic anxiety.
There is a good evidence base that demonstrates that early intervention, delivered within school by school staff, can have good outcomes in building children’s resilience and reducing anxiety. These approaches are practical and mean that staff can encourage children to use the strategies in real-life situations in the moment. We have a course written and developed by educational psychologist Dr. Amy Sweet which supports the adults around the child in recognising and identifying anxiety, implementing practical strategies for individual pupils, and supporting staff in developing a whole-school approach to support with anxiety. The course can be found here.
