Coping with Back to School Anxiety

Homework and bullies and butterflies! Oh my!

The perils of returning to the classroom – or starting school for the very first time – stir feelings of nervousness and even dread in most children.

Parents, though, can rest assured that the tantrums, headaches and stomachaches are normal responses to the arrival of the first-day-of-school, says Robert Dicker, MD, associate director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

“Anxiety is generally a normal response to a change or a transition,” Dr. Dicker said. “When we’re talking about anxiety, we’re not necessarily talking about a disorder. We’re talking about a symptom that most everybody experiences.

“Probably, there’s more of a problem if you don’t have anxiety in certain situations,” he added.

As kids across Long Island and metropolitan New York wind up their summer and head back to school this week, Dr. Dicker advises parents to anticipate varying degrees of anxiety in their children.

“It’s important to accept the fact that sometimes your children will experience some anxiety. It doesn’t mean it’s a sign of a major emotional crisis,” he said. “Anxiety is part of life. It’s a signal that there might be some difficulty and some challenge to get through.

“Parents should be supportive, empathetic and understanding – and at some points forceful in terms of not giving in to children’s anxiety by keeping them home from school,” Dr. Dicker added.

Parents should also be mindful that no matter how many first days of school their child has weathered sans anxiety, a new school year’s first day can present unique problems.

“Different ages present different challenges and different opportunities for growth,” Dr. Dicker said. “A child may have adapted well in previous years, but for one reason or another, they suddenly experience some anxiety on the first day of school.

“It’s to be expected during these times of transition. As children get older, each year they face particular kinds of pressures,” he added.

For younger children, particularly kindergartners who face separation anxiety from heading off to school for the first time, Dr. Dicker suggests that parents can desensitize their children to the new environment by taking a tour of the school or playing ball with their children in the schoolyard during the week before school begins.

For more information, visit http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/school-rush.aspx.

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