Andrea Diehm is the South Dakota Department of Education’s school counseling liaison.

As educators, you’ve likely encountered students dealing with anxiety. You may notice students who avoid situations and activities, display difficulties concentrating, and/or experience physical symptoms, such as stomachaches and headaches.

Like adults, all students have good days and bad days. While experiencing some level of anxiety in response to a stressor is normal, severe anxiety may interfere with school and daily life, which may indicate an anxiety disorder may be present. A clinical mental health clinician may be able to provide assistance with students experiencing severe anxiety. This article does not constitute medical advice.

As educators, there are things you can do to help students reduce anxiety and develop healthy coping strategies for dealing with stress. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) offer some useful advice.

• Provide a predictable classroom and routine. Experiencing fewer surprises helps students, especially those dealing with anxiety, do better in school. NASP offers a few suggestions on how to make your classroom more predictable.
  • At the beginning of the school day, allow a few extra minutes for students to transition into the school routine after arriving from home and/or school breakfast.
  • Display the day’s routine so students are aware of what will be occurring for the day in your classroom.
  • If there are any changes that will be occurring the following day, send a note home to bring it to the attention of parents and students. This gives time for the student to process the upcoming change.
  • Provide a regularly scheduled “downtime” for students which includes time that is not demanding, is nonsocial, and is quiet.
  • Avoid making assignments and classroom expectations overly complex. You can do this by breaking tasks down into manageable steps, sharing the length of time students are given to complete an assignment, and provide a variety of ways students may participate in class.


• Integrate stress-reduction techniques in your school setting. Modeling and teaching healthy coping strategies may help students use them when dealing with stress and anxiety. Teachers may find these strategies useful at the beginning of the school day or class period and/or before a test. The strategies featured in this section come from ASCA and not only help with general anxiety and stress reduction, but also with test anxiety.
  • Use deep breathing exercises to help students calm down, as this slows heart rate, lowers blood pressure, and increases oxygen intake. The 4-7-8 breathing exercise is comprised of four seconds of inhaling, holding for seven seconds, and exhaling for eight. Repeat if needed.
  • Use a grounding strategy to help students stay in the present and distracted from their anxiety. The 5-4-3-2-1 senses technique involves students coming up with five things they can see, four things they can feel, three things they can hear, two things they can smell, and one thing they can taste.
  • Encourage positive self-talk through use of: daily positive quotes; creating a positive world wall filled with positive quotes, can-do attitude posters, and test-taking strategies; journaling to allow students to process their anxiety and release emotions; and an activity called “crush the can’ts” in which students write a negative thought down on a slip of paper and tape it to an empty pop can and stomp on it to literally “crush” their can'ts.


• Develop a plan for managing anxious behaviors. If students are experiencing anxiety and need some assistance, have a plan ready to intervene. NASP provides a few strategies.
  • Have a communication system in place in which a student may signal an adult when they’re experiencing anxiety. This will help to limit some of the embarrassment they may experience when encountering anxiety symptoms.
  • Identify a safe place within the classroom for students to go when experiencing high anxiety or stress.
  • Identify a point person at the school for students to check in with briefly (5-10 minutes) if they need to leave the classroom during times of anxiety. A school-based mental health provider, such as a school counselor, school psychologist, or school social worker may be helpful to work with the student to practice anxiety-relieving strategies before returning to class.

Sources:

Malone, C., Dugas, J., & Ellis, T. (2018). Anxiety: Helping handout for school and home. Helping Handouts: Supporting Students at School and Home. National Association of School Psychologists. Available at: https://nasponline.org/HHportal.

Duvall, A., & Roddy, C. (2019). Coping with student anxiety. ASCASchoolCounselor. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Magazines/January-February-2019/Coping-With-Student-Anxiety.

Howard, N. (2019). Battling test anxiety. ASCASchoolCounselor. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Magazines/January-February-2019/Battling-Test-Anxiety.