As a parent listens to teachers and other district personnel talk about “best practices”, “research-based”, and “common core”, which all serve a justifiable purpose when discussing instructional practices, there comes a time when the conversation needs to shift to how our kids feel about school and their personal experiences, especially when school itself creates anxiety-responses for a number of students. For anxiety is one of the most prevalent and debilitating influences effecting students today all across the country and this needs to be shared.
“Anxiety and depression are treatable, but 80 percent of kids with a diagnosable anxiety disorder and 60 percent of kids with diagnosable depression are not getting treatment, according to the 2015 Child Mind Institute Children’s Mental Health Report. This is compounded by the alarming number of children who are not identified or diagnosed, though they experience anxiety, fear, and worry everyday. Due to the fact we cannot see it, touch it, nor at times, understand the power of fear and worry, this doesn’t make it less important. As an Education Advocate, working with parents and school personnel addressing learning and the impact of debilitating disabilities, most learning disability conversations touch upon the issues associated how our students feel about themselves and the learning experience at school. However, these conversations may often be minimized.
For example, this week I was called upon to assist two families where the issue of anxiety was featured withing their child’s profile:
The first situation involved a student who was unable to attend school for the past two and half years due to anxiety disorder. Specifically, events at school established intense emotional memories and as a result, this teenager was unable to walk through the doors of his neighborhood school like his peers. Fortunately, his parents stayed the course and pursued every imaginable resource for their child. Finally, after 36 months, the school district finally implemented a formal evaluation and acknowledged the impairment of anxiety and its impact on learning. But it was a struggle for few people within the school system were able to make the connection between anxiety and the inability to attend school; it was addressed through a variety of misunderstandings including discipline, legal threats for the parents (attendance), and inconsistent interventions. As a result of the formal evaluation, the parents, staff, and the district will be able to explore a wider-range of educational options from the foundation of understanding highlighting the impact of anxiety. From the parent’s perspective, waiting two and a half years for the district to finally understand what they have shared, as well a number of clinical psychologists have recommended through this period, has been exhausting.
The second situation also involved a student with anxiety at the foundation of the child’s learning profile. What makes this situation unique is the idea that staff members do not see the impact of this disability whereas, the parents, outside therapists, and most notably, the child, all see it differently. Within the formal evaluation process, staff members were surveyed using a standardized assessment tool addressing a wide-range of social – emotional indicators. Their results presented “average” findings with no real concern or recommendation for additional support. In contrast, the student’s self-report evaluation within the same assessment tool presented a much different profile including “clinically significant” ratings including “self-esteem”, “emotional resiliency”, and “anxiety”. Typically, clinically significant scores in these areas may establish a need for additional supports and resources outside of the general education setting. However, since the staff members did not see the need for specially designed instruction within the area of social and emotional development, the concerns of the parents, clinicians, and the child were minimized.
Ironically, as I was in the middle of writing this article, I received a phone call from a parent who expressed the same situation: Her son, who is ten years old with a mood-disorder as well as ADHD, was struggling in school. Instead of addressing his emotional needs, the school addressed his behaviors through an intensive discipline program. As a result, her son doesn’t want to go to school and the behaviors have increased. I hear this everyday in this work. It’s as if the educational system hasn’t caught up with the latest brain research highlighting emotions, peak performance, human development, and self-resiliency skills and are stuck in the 1950’s with behavior management, highlighting BF Skinner and reward and punishment strategies alone.
Throughout the last decade as an Education Advocate, I have seen an extraordinary number of students with anxiety-related symptoms increasing by leaps and bounds. The cause of this phenomena will be debated and discussed for years and years as epidemic levels rise to the surface. However, what we do know is as follows: “Anxiety manifests in a surprising variety of ways in part because it is based on a physiological response to a threat in the environment, a response that maximizes the body’s ability to either face danger or escape danger. So while some children exhibit anxiety by shrinking from situations or objects that trigger fears, some react with overwhelming need to break out of an uncomfortable situation. That behavior, which can be unmanageable, is often misread as anger or opposition” according to the 2015 Child Mind Institute Children’s Mental Health Report.
Simply, the “fight or flight” patterns associated with anxiety, worry, or fear present a complex set of response behaviors demonstrated within the classroom and throughout school. Most notably, many of these behaviors are exasperated and intensified by the stressful conditions of school itself. This area of study requires a greater amount of understanding and insight for it may be difficult for those who are immersed in the system, familiar with the environment, and comfortable with the surroundings of school, to be sensitive to those who may experience stress and anxiety as a result of the learning setting. Also, behaviors associated with anxiety often “mask” the deeper issues needing to surface.
“Anxiety is one of those diagnoses that is a great masquerader,” explains Dr. Laura Prager, director of the Child Psychiatry Emergency Service at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It can look like a lot of things. Particularly with kids who may not have words to express their feelings, or because no one is listening to them, they might manifest their anxiety with behavioral dysregulation.”
So all in all, we need to be mindful of the impact of stress and anxiety on our kids as they navigate school. This should not surprise anyone for a recent article within the Washington Post (5/12/2015) highlighted how stress is impacting many teachers resulting in exodus within the profession: “… AFT, the nation’s second-largest teachers union, said the results were startling enough that it has asked the U.S. Department of Education and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to follow up and conduct a valid survey to determine if there is a national problem of stressed-out teachers.”
“We ask teachers to be a combination of Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and, I’m dating myself here, Tony Soprano,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT. “We ask them to be Mom and Dad and impart tough love but also be a shoulder to lean on. And when they don’t do these things, we blame them for not being saviors of the world. What is the effect? The effect has been teachers are incredibly stressed out.”
As we all take a look at ourselves, our children, and now, our teachers, within the context of stress, anxiety, and related behaviors, it’s time for us all to acknowledge that excessive levels of stress serve no purpose especially within our schools. I suggest the following: We need to take a step back and acknowledge the importance of creating school environments, like our homes, to reflect a safe-haven from business-world conditions associated with stress, worry, and anxiety. Most importantly, by focusing on relationships, meaningful learning opportunities, and taking time to do so, we would be providing the greatest gift we can offer our children. For the pathway to self-awareness, self-fulfillment, and personal expression toward one’s potential and promise is founded upon love, understanding, and other best practices. Anything that creates stress, worry, or fear is not in our children’s best interest nor is a common core guideline worth supporting.
For more information on this or any other topic related to special education or gifted education, give me a call at 206 914 0975.