Stress and anxiety
Get help if you or your child is overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. Learn simple, practical strategies, and how to get professional help for anxiety in school and in life.
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Tips and strategies
- Quick tipBrainstorm strategies.
Find a calm time to talk about ways to make things less stressful. For instance, would it help to ask Grandma to give high fives instead of hugs? Or to explain to your host that there are certain foods you just can’t eat?
- Quick tipTalk about stress.
Explain that stress can come out in different ways — like stomachaches — and there are things they can do to cope with those feelings.
- Quick tipStart with the easiest task.
Try having kids do the easiest, quickest assignments first. That way, they’ll feel good about getting a task done — and may be less anxious about the rest of the homework.
Podcast
The first step to help your child calm down
Learn how to look calm even if you don’t feel calm — and why this is the single most important step in managing your child’s tantrums or outbursts.
Downloads
Anxiety trackerPDF
Anxiety pattern finderPDF
Signs your tween or teen might be struggling with anxietyPDF
Calming strategies worksheetPDF
More resources
All articles
- Classroom accommodations for anxiety
- Workplace supports: Stress and anxiety
- Can Ritalin increase anxiety in children?
- School burnout in kids who learn and think differently
- Dyslexia and anxiety in kids
- Parenting is hard work. Ask family and friends for this kind of help.
- Dyscalculia or math anxiety? Compare the signs in kids
- 7 ways to help your middle- or high-schooler manage stress
- ADHD and anxiety
- 5 common worries when your child learns and thinks differently
- 6 signs your child is burned out
- Can you get a 504 plan for anxiety?
- How to help your child manage back-to-school anxiety
- Experts weigh in: “How can I get my young child less anxious about starting school?”
- Signs your child may have too much homework
- 9 tips for helping grade-schoolers cope with test anxiety
- 8 tips to keep your child from burning out
- 10 ways to help your grade-schooler cope with stress
- How kids can succeed even when they fail
- What is test anxiety?
- How I manage my anxiety as an educator
- How to help your child get emotional support at school
- Could anxiety in girls actually be ADHD?
- 10 free ways to relax and bond with your child
- What to say if your child is nervous about getting evaluated for special education
- 6 things I wish I’d known sooner about my son’s anxiety
- 11 ADHD holiday tips
- Does ADHD raise the risk of mental health issues?
- When is it time to get my child help for mental health issues?
- 5 stress factors for teens who learn and think differently
- Treatment for mental health issues
- 8 ways I manage anxiety from my learning disability
- 5 tips to help high-schoolers cope with test anxiety
- 6 ways kids might respond to an evaluation result
- How to manage employee stress at work
- ADHD and “analysis paralysis”
- School refusal: How to help kids cope
- Why messiness can make kids anxious
- Will my child bounce back from the coronavirus crisis?
- 8 meditation apps for kids
- My sixth grader is anxious about school. What can I do?
- 3 things to say when your child worries about getting help at school
- How I got over my fear of AP statistics (and passed!)
- 6 sensory-friendly clothing solutions
- 7 tips to help your child self-soothe
- My anxiety and ADHD: Hiding behind a perfect veneer
- Emotional sunburn: What rejection sensitive dysphoria feels like to me
- Checklist: Questions to ask potential therapists
- 8 difficult holiday situations that make some kids anxious
- What is math anxiety?
- Back-to-school anxiety in kids: What to watch out for
- Signs of anxiety in tweens and teens
- A heartbreaking choice: Should my son have accommodations for lockdown drills?
- Anxiety in people who learn and think differently
- Good stress vs. bad stress for kids
- 6 common fears for kids who learn and think differently
- Stress and kids who learn and think differently
- 8 tips to help middle-schoolers cope with test anxiety
- The connection between anxiety and stress
- Cognitive behavioral therapy: What is CBT?
- Anxiety and slow processing speed
- 6 discipline tips for kids with anxiety
- Download: Feeling stressed? Try the 5-4-3-2-1 mindfulness technique
- Video: Dyslexia and the fear of reading
- The difference between typical anxiety and an anxiety problem
- How to calm first-day-of-school nerves in different grades
- Signs of anxiety in young kids
- Self-care for kids: 6 ways to self-regulate
- Social anxiety and kids with learning and thinking differences
- Why some kids get stomachaches before school
- School refusal: What it means when kids won’t do schoolwork
- How to say it: Helping your teen manage 6 common fears about the future
- 4 reasons kids get anxious about reading — and how to help
- 3 mindfulness techniques for parenting stress
- Sensory processing challenges and anxiety
- How scary news can impact kids who learn and think differently
- Confessions of a “school-a-holic”
- How brain breaks can help kids with homework frustration
- 3 tips if you have job interview anxiety
- Child can’t wind down at night? Why some kids struggle to go to sleep
- The importance of mindfulness for kids who learn and think differently
- Homework anxiety: Why it happens and how to help
- Video: Comedian Dena Blizzard opens up about her daughter’s anxiety
- Why do kids fidget?