Anxious children “are in relatively constant state of hyper-vigilance and are attempting to regulate their anxious emotions through cognitive (e.g. self talk), behavioural (e.g. withdrawal) or physiological (e.g. deep breathing) means” (Huberty, 2012, p. 116). Anxious people have an attentional bias to threat which means that they will focus on potential threats in their environment. This can have a negative effect on students academic achievements as they are likely unable to focus on instruction and school work when they are anxious about their surroundings.“Interventions for academic problems associated with anxiety typically involve using strategies such as relaxation training, task analysis, and breaking tasks into smaller components” (p. 160).
Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a technique that relaxes muscles by systematically tensing particular muscle groups then releasing the tension. This technique can help a person relax their muscles and ease tension. This allows a person to understand what relaxation feels like and how to identify becoming tense through out the day (Anxiety BC,).
Calm Breathing helps you to slow your breathing down. It consists of taking slow breaths through your nose into your lower belly, holding it for a couple seconds and exhaling slowly through the mouth (Anxiety BC).
Kid Cuddle can be done standing or sitting, stretch arms out to your sides as wide as you can, slowly bring your arms forward and cross in the front. With each hand holding onto the opposite shoulder, squeeze and rock “the kid in your arms” (Kids Have Stress Too).
Cloud Push is a tense and relaxation technique. Stand up tall, stretch your arms up as high as you can. Push the clouds away then let your arms fall slowly to your side (Kids Have Stress Too).
Who Knows? Stand up straight with your hands at your side. Raise your shoulders up to your ears, hold then let shoulders slowly drop. When you raise your shoulders say “who” and when they drop say “knows”. Repeat this multiple times (Kids Have Stress Too).
Deep Breathing, like calm breathing, requires belly breathing. Either lying down or sitting comfortably, close your eyes. Imagine there is a balloon in your stomach, place one hand under your belly button. Breathe in slowly and deeply through your nose to the count of four. Feel the balloon fill with air, when it is full, breathe out slowly using the count of four. Your hand will rise and fall as the balloon fills and empties (Kids Have Stress Too).