On Monday night Catherine Gallagher a Clinical Psychologist ran a parent education workshop on child anxiety, a topic that is of great importance to us parents and educators.

What we know about anxiousness:

• It can be genetic.
• It can hold children back from learning and development. 
  
• It can make bringing children up a real challenge.
  
• It can contribute to children not wanting to take managed risks.
  
• If we don't manage anxiety, it will get bigger.
• It can lead to fears such as rejection, fire, burglars, earthquakes etc.
  
• IT IS NATURAL, NORMAL AND COMPLETELY NECESSARY IN LIFE!

Catherine provided a number of key reasons why children become anxious. Below is a link to an article and podcast that unpacks this why really clearly. 

Article:

https://www.radionz.co.nz/programmes/are-we-there-yet/story/2018637094/worrying-times

Podcast:

https://podcast.radionz.co.nz/downloads/thereyet/thereyet-20180405-1300-worrying_times-03.ogg

What we learned is there is no cure for anxiousness, however as parents and educators there are a number of positive strategies we can use to alleviate anxiousness such as:

• A defined time to worry i.e. five minutes.
  
• Confronting anxiousness instead of avoiding it.
  
• Providing children with situations where they have to use positive strategies to manage their anxiety.
  
• Being consistent and firm!
  

Thank you to Catherine and all of our whanau who attended this workshop. We hope to run more of these education sessions in the future. 

Regards

Sean | Tumuaki

principal@lemonwoodgrove.school.nz