Anxiety Intervention: That is What Summers are For!

It often amazes me how many kids I encounter with anxiety issues. On some level, anxiety is a natural part of life and helps us understand our own arousal levels, and ability for toleration. In other ways, anxiety can be all-consuming, and scary, meaning that it has essentially crossed the threshold from normal nerves to classical anxiety. I think that anxiety is a fairly normal, cue gasp, aspect of life that can be overcome and managed.

We use systematic teaching strategies.

I always hear the same story from parents, the academic year is full of anxiety; there is school, after-school programs, dance lessons, piano, Speech, ABA, OT and so on and so on until your child is just a ball of nerves ready to burst... Is it all a bit too much? Maybe. But what other option do we have, than to constantly push our kids to their maximum potential? We want gold for your kids, and so do you...that is why we give everything we have to making sure your kids meet milestones, develop self-awareness and become successful self-advocates. We want it all don't we? A happy, healthy and well adjusted kid that also does well in all arenas, from social to communication. We want the full package, we want every child to reach his or her potential, or better yet, surpass it.


So what it means, is that we as professionals, and you as parents, need to come together to understand your child's anxiety. Come together to understand how to combat and manage the anxiety, as well as using a behavioral approach to analyze the antecedents and consequences that come before and after the episode of anxiety, so that you can plan and manipulate variables as needed. By helping your child cope with anxiety, you shape the behavior needed to be able to deescalate one's own feelings of angst...what better gift is there?


Spending the time to address anxiety concerns, is crucially important for social, academic and inter-personal growth. Having the time to target anxiety in a hands-on way, is easy when you think about it....


Summer vacation is a time to recharge for students; it's a time to develop social and interpersonal skills, a time to develop hobbies and skills. Summer vacations can also be an incredible time to target the obstacles that prevent skill acquisition during the academic year, in a way that is intensive and hands-on.


Anxiety, for example, can be a difficult barrier to overcome without explicit intervention, and can hinder academic development among other skills. Overcoming anxiety will allow your child to be his or her authentic self; to experience self-love, and self-understanding, and most important self-confidence.


A successful intervention for social anxiety, would include a combination of 1:1 and group learning; it would involve a comprehensive program in which desensitization is targeted and reinforcement is used to pair social situations with reinforcement. Through a variety of presentations, students participate in both individual and group therapy, ensuring that all needs met throughout the day. Participating in a variety of activities, chosen for each unique learner's profile, kids can expect to overcome barriers, and become confidence and social learners. Most importantly, participants will return to school with strategies, and management techniques and abilities, which increase overall ability to perform independently.





P.S. Magnificent Minds offers a program like this. www.MagnificentMinds.ca for more details about our Summer Camp Program 2012


P.P.S. If you like the font used in the pic above, Google free fonts and get loads of amazing fonts for teaching purposes and making visuals :)