{"id":165256,"date":"2025-08-22T01:39:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T01:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165256\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T01:39:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T01:39:31","slug":"expert-shares-tips-for-parents-to-help-children-cope-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/165256\/","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":3,"featured_media":163085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1736,13915,245,29787,94266,1189,210,517,4644,18374,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-165256","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-emotions","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-stress","17":"tag-tips","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115069869668973277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}