5 Ways to Support Your Nervous Child Starting School
Starting school is a big occasion. For parents, it marks the end of complete dependency on them and the start of a child’s independence and learning. For a child, it is a completely different experience, one that they have no knowledge of and may feel they have no control over. In short, it can be terrifying. Most children are likely to feel nervous and this can affect the impression they make and how successful they are at school.
Fortunately, you can take steps to ease their anxiety and help them to enjoy the experience.
- Start Simple
The best way for any child to overcome anxiety about school is to start them in a reputable early learning facility, such as this Croydon early learning centre. The beauty about places like this is that you can start your child off slowly, just a morning, or half days until they get used to it.
Although early learning is often deemed more fun than school, it still introduces your child to the general principles and allows them to make friends. Many of these friends will move into school with them.
That, and having an idea about what to expect, will remove the majority of anxiety.
- Talk To Your Child
The second step in the process is to talk to your child. Tell them what to expect from school, ask them what questions they have, and what concerns. Being able to talk to you about it before they start school, and knowing you will be there to talk about it after, will help.
As with most things in life, a problem shared is a problem halved. You may be surprised by how much this helps your child.
- Rehearse Scenarios
Another great way to help your child overcome anxiety is to roleplay possible scenarios. You can’t know exactly what will happen on any given day but you can visualize the most common occurrences, such as meeting other children and getting to know the teacher.
Roleplay the scenarios in several different ways. This will help your child to know what to expect and reduce their anxiety.
- Plan A School Visit
If you want to help your nervous child enjoy their first day at school then you should speak to the school about having a visit. It can be during the day when other children are in school, this will allow your child to see the average hustle and bustle.
More importantly, the building will then be familiar to them, making it much easier to face their first day. The more uncertainties and unknown you remove the easier it is for them.
- Help Them Create A Profile
Finally, many children can overcome their nervousness by creating a one-page profile of themselves. It should state your child’s names, strengths, and weaknesses, it can also talk about the things that they enjoy or need versus the things they don’t. If your child helps you prepare the profile and you then give it to the teacher, the teacher will have a good idea regarding how to treat your child
More importantly, your child will feel like the first step has been done, removing most of their nerves.
