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The Anxious Child
Raising a Healthy Child in a Frightening World
By Mary Ann Shaw, Ed.D.
If your child does experience a disaster at home or at school or in the neighborhood, talk about it and talk about it and talk about it. If what happened affected your child's entire class at school or a group of friends, get them together as a group to talk so that they know they're not alone when they have these fearful feelings.
If your child is very young when he or she is traumatized, be sure to talk about the event from time to time. Your child's brain is in a continuous state of maturation, so he or she will view the situation differently at different ages and will gradually understand various concepts from the black and white to the abstract. At each stage of development, your child will have different questions and different fears that need to be addressed.
Remember, if you're not able to reduce your child's anxiety – whatever the source – by talking with her, seek a professional for assistance. You are not inadequate if you make the same comments a professional might make and your child still has trouble. Sometimes, it just takes an outside, impartial source to help your child see past the anxiety.
