{"id":13060,"date":"2025-08-21T03:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T03:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/13060\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T03:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T03:57:07","slug":"expert-shares-tips-for-parents-to-help-children-cope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/13060\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert shares tips for parents to help children cope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(WSET) \u2014  As children return to school, anxiety levels can rise due to the uncertainty of new experiences, according to Dr. Cindy Smith, director of the Children&#8217;s Emotions Lab at Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n<p>Smith said kids can face uncertainty around unfamiliar situations, especially as classes start up.<\/p>\n<p>She explained that this uncertainty can lead to anxiety among children, with contributing factors including fitting in, meeting new teachers, navigating classrooms, and riding the bus for the first time.<\/p>\n<p> For kids themselves, Smith recommends a few tips if they start feeling anxiety.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEE ALSO: <a href=\"https:\/\/wset.com\/news\/local\/horizon-health-aims-to-lift-students-spirits-with-positive-sign-campaign-across-the-area-virginia-back-to-school-yard-sign-august-2025#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"https:\/\/wset.com\/news\/local\/horizon-health-aims-to-lift-students-spirits-with-positive-sign-campaign-across-the-area-virginia-back-to-school-yard-sign-august-2025#\" class=\"themeColorForLinks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Horizon Behavioral Health aims to lift students&#8217; spirits with positive sign campaign<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Having them focus on their breathing, counting to 10 and then talking to their teachers, so that the teachers know what they&#8217;re feeling and can help them with that anxiety as well. Then, if the children are continuing to feel that way at school, going to talk to school counselors,&#8221; Smith said. <\/p>\n<p>To help children cope with back-to-school nerves, Smith provided these tips:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Watch for subtle signs of anxiety: Stomachaches or increased irritability may be clues that a child is stressed.<\/li>\n<li>Keep communication open: Encourage children to share their feelings and validate their emotions.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid dismissing their worries: Use an \u201cemotion coaching philosophy,&#8221; and treat emotions as opportunities for growth and learning.<\/li>\n<li>Choose your words carefully: Phrases like \u201cit will be fine\u201d or \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t worry\u201d do not acknowledge how children are feeling, potentially making them less likely to open up and increasing their anxiety.<\/li>\n<li>Connect through enjoyable activities: Doing something fun together can help create opportunities to talk about what\u2019s on their mind.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WSET) \u2014 As children return to school, anxiety levels can rise due to the uncertainty of new experiences,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[3083,12003,3914,12280,12281,18,2790,135,19,17,167,502,173,6345],"class_list":{"0":"post-13060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-anxiety","9":"tag-back-to-school","10":"tag-children","11":"tag-communication","12":"tag-coping","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-emotions","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-mental-health","19":"tag-mentalhealth","20":"tag-stress","21":"tag-tips"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}