There is no denying — or avoiding — the fact that children, and even very young children, are suffering from more anxiety than any generation before them.
This increase has been heavily documented in university research papers, psychology studies, and even noted by education professionals…
Up to 55 per cent of teachers in the UK have reported a dramatic rise in anxiety levels in their students in the last few years, and in Australia, the figures are similar.
You’ve likely noticed that there is something of a ‘meditation’ trend happening.
Prominent figures such as Oprah have even jumped on the bandwagon, having launched a meditation app collboratively with Deepak Chopra.
But this is one ‘fad’ that we can definitely get behind, and one that shouldn’t be going away any time soon.
Why?
We’ve discussed a lot of issues surrounding the final years of high school on the blog over the years…
How to help your child survive the VCE, part 1, part 2 and part 3;
How to deal with the pressures of year 12 (by reducing them);
Motivation and success during VCE; and
How to help your child pick their final year electives.
But for many of you, you will now be in the grips of the climactic point of your child’s high school education: their final exams.
So Australia’s leading online mental health organisation for young people — ReachOut — has published some practical tips for parents, to help you help your child through this stressful period.
If you’re like most parents of school-aged kids, you’ve probably witnessed an anxious child struggling with a challenging homework task.
The temptation to help them in some way can be very strong…
And even when the ‘help’ starts off with a gentle nudge in the right direction, it can sometimes end up with the child sleeping on the couch while you finish off the project!
It’s perfectly understandable. We want to stop children from being anxious, while helping them to succeed.
But it’s best not to help too much.
Why?
Got any questions before you book? Click here to request a phone call and a psychologist will call you at a convenient time (prospective clients only). Please keep in mind we are often busy with clients but we do our best to respond to all enquiries within one business day. :-)
(*As of 24th July, 2019.)