Moving Kids from Anxiety to Resilience

Shannon O’Dwyer Deputy Head (Academics) –Preparatory School

At the commencement of Term 3, all Prep Staff participated in the North West Regional PD Day, hosted by The King’s School. This was an opportunity for our network of primary schools, including King’s, Tara, Abbotsleigh, Barker, Knox, and Wahroonga Prep, to engage in collaborative learning in an area of shared priority.

The guest speaker was Dr Jodi Richardson, renowned researcher and author of the best-selling books, Anxious Kids and Anxious Mums. Dr Richardson spent the day sharing evidence-based strategies for:

• understanding anxiety, • responding to anxiety, • overcoming avoidance, • dialling down anxiety, and • supporting parents to be role models. Dr Richardson reminded Prep Staff that 50% of mental illness begins before the age of 14, and in a class of 30 children, 7 will be dealing with a mental health issue, while only 2 will reach out for support. Classroom teachers, therefore, play an essential role in identifying, understanding, and supporting students who are suffering from anxiety on a daily basis.

Dr Richardson also explained that anxiety is the brain and body’s response in anticipation of a threat. Anxiety occurs when perceived threats trigger the brain’s alarm system, not necessarily when there is an actual threat to safety. Dr Richardson classified anxiety into 7 types, and clarified the differences between “normal anxiety” (that is, fleeting, occasional, helpful, and manageable) and an “anxiety disorder” (in which anxiety is frequent, persistent, uncontrollable, interferes with daily life, and results in extreme distress.)

Dr Richardson helped Prep Staff to understand the signs and symptoms of anxiety that become evident in a classroom setting. She outlined a range of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and behaviours which occur in children who suffer from anxiety. She encouraged teachers to understand that all anxiety is a message, and to ask themselves the question, “What is the child trying to achieve by their behaviour?”

Dr Richardson discussed the power of empathy in responding to anxiety in the classroom. She outlined language and strategies teachers can implement to:

• recognise that the student’s perspective is their truth, • stay out of judgement, • recognise emotion, and • communicate that we understand how the child feels.

Dr Richardson also explained the recursive “cycle of avoidance,” which causes patterns of behaviour such as task refusal and school refusal. She discussed the Stepladder Model for gradually increasing exposure and chunking overwhelming tasks into manageable steps.

Finally, Dr Richardson discussed the importance of getting students “out of their heads and into their bodies” to dial down anxiety. She modelled a variety of strategies for use in classroom settings, such as deep breathing and mindfulness exercises. Teachers also practised sensory exercises to help students to pay attention to what they hear, see, feel, and smell. In small groups, teachers brainstormed ways

to increase physical movement within the school day to anchor students back in their bodies, thus breaking the cycle of repetitive thoughts and feelings.

At the end of the day, all Prep Staff took away the acronym, FACE, to help them respond to anxiety in the classroom. Prep Staff learned to: focus on what we can control (F), acknowledge students’ thoughts and feelings (A), come back into their bodies (C), and engage in what’s important now (E). This was a highly valuable day of professional learning, as each teacher left with a deeper understanding of anxiety in children and multiple practical strategies to implement in their own classrooms.