Anxiety – it’s something that we all experience, and children experience anxiety too. Whether it be anxiety about:

• performance (e.g. worries about tests, homework, or out-of-school activities),
• social situations (e.g. talking to new people, or doing a speech), or just
• general concerns about life (e.g. worries about things happening on the news)

Some level of anxiety for children is natural and part of growing, learning, and trying new things. However, sometimes anxiety becomes too big and starts to impact on a child’s ability to both enjoy and participate in activities in their day-to-day life. This is when we need to support children to take ACTION against their anxieties.

How can we do this? Recently I facilitated a 6-week anxiety management group called Take Action with a group of children between the ages of 8 to 12. This evidence-based program based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy principles suggests that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are all related. So, for example, when we experience anxious thoughts, we tend to experience feelings of worry and avoid situations that make us feel anxious – which creates a cycle. While this ‘cycle’ can cause feelings of worry to be maintained, it also means that working on any of those areas (thoughts, feelings or behaviour) can produce a positive flow-on effect that results in reduced anxiety.

Take Action follows a structure based on the word ACTION:

    A – Be AWARE
    C – Keep CALM
    T – Think strong THOUGHTS
     I – Into ACTION
    O – Use my OPTIONS
    N – NEVER stop taking action against anxiety

Each step promotes a skill that supports children to be aware of and better manage their feelings of worry. Children participate in the group weekly and complete home tasks throughout the week. When put together, all these skills create an ACTION plan that they can use to prepare and equip themselves for situations that cause them to worry or feel anxious. At the end of the session, parents are briefed about each step and provided with more information on how to support their child with the home task for that week.

So what does each step involve?

‘Being aware’ involves the child knowing what situations cause them to feel worry or anxiety, and recognising the bodily signals of anxiety that go along with them, such as a fast-beating heart or sweaty palms. Children are introduced to the idea of rating their level of anxiety on a scale and continue to practice this throughout the sessions and home tasks.

‘Keeping calm’ involves practical relaxation skills such as progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing, which children practice at home throughout the week. These skills are essential in reducing the physical sensations of anxiety.

‘Think strong thoughts’ involves recognising unhelpful thoughts and making children feel worried, and coming up with ‘strong’ ideas – such as “I can do this” – that help children feel brave. Children create a ‘strength’ card, with a scary situation on one side and a strong thought on the other, as a visual cue and reminder of their brave, strong thoughts.

In the ‘Into Action’ step, children create an ‘Action Ladder’, which breaks down one of their worries into smaller steps to practice (and get a reward for!) Research suggests that gradual exposure to feared situations supports children to cope with these situations rather than avoid them.

The ’Use my options’ step involves an array of strategies for children to take with them to equip them to manage their anxiety, such as using confident and assertive body signals like smiling and making eye contact. Children practice these skills in session and complete a home task to practice their assertiveness skills throughout the week.

Lastly, ‘Never stop taking action’ encourages children to put all the steps together and create an Action plan for something coming up in the future that they feel worried about.

It was a pleasure to run this group over Telehealth and support the children to develop these skills. Hearing feedback that some of the children felt more confident in themselves and had practised some of the skills at home, such as deep breathing, was a privilege. Children also get to experience being in a group of other children who feel worried (often about similar things), which can be very normalising for children, to realise they are not the only ones their age who can feel worried.

The group is also a lot of fun, with two dolphin characters, Dulcy and Dion, who ‘participate’ along the way! Games and activities are embedded throughout to promote children’s interest and engagement, along with a booklet with many age-appropriate activities.
Equipping children with the skills to recognise and manage their anxiety will support them not only with the worries they are currently experiencing but will build their skills in regulating their emotions. In addition, this skill will carry into all areas of their life as they grow.

So if you feel that your child’s worries are impacting their ability to participate fully in their day-to-day life, or they often complain of feeling nervous, keep an eye out for future groups and consider enrolling them in the Take Action program.