Your Anxious Child: How Parents and Teachers Can Relieve Anxiety in Children

Concerned about the patterns of anxious behavior exhibited by your child? From simple, specific phobias to general anxiety, these problems can start early and cause tremendous stress for families. Your Anxious Child presents a thoroughly mapped-out program called COPE to deal effectively with anxiety when it starts. While this is a multistep program for fairly complicated mental health issues, information is presented simply, broken down into smaller steps and specific actions. (Plenty of real-life stories provide context, too.) The first step in the program is teaching kids methods of self-comfort, ranging from meditation and prayer to easy breathing exercises and biofeedback. The second is developing plans to relieve anxiety, focusing on improved communication and problem-solving skills. Since each plan will need to be as unique as your child, only a few concrete examples are given; but the directions for creating individualized plans are straightforward. The third step could be the most important: persist! Anxiety problems aren't solved overnight. Lastly, evaluate the program's success. What can be changed to increase effectiveness? This book's clear-cut approach can help parents and children wade through the difficulties of anxious behavior to get positive and long-lasting results. --Jill Lightner