Supporting Children, Families With Anxiety Issues

Topics: Anxiety, Family Words: 623 Pages: 5

Introduction

Anxiety is a major challenge affecting most children and families in the UK.
It is a condition where an individual’s normal emotional wholesome changes at different stages or times in his/her life.
It is closely related to fear.
It is also connected with projected fear of something.
Terms such as shy, nervous and among others describes the various levels of anxiety.
It is difficult for a care giver to identify anxiety in a child. This owes to the fact that a child lack expressive skills to express his/her emotions. This makes some of them to develop defiant behaviors.
In supporting anxiety in children, a care giver is important. He/she is able to assist a child cope up with the disorder through provision of effective coping strategies

Research indicates that anxiety is a normal child development pattern; it is exhibited differently as the child grows older.
Research also provides a clear intervention strategy through means such as; identification and treatment plans (Haworth & Hart, 2012). This approach has helped a child reduce the negative impact of anxiety disorder on a social functioning perspective.
Research provides screening and assessment techniques for diagnosing anxiety among the children.

Critical in supporting children with anxiety disorder.
It helps a care giver differentiates developmental and transitory appropriate fears and worries of anxiety during evaluation process of a child (Connolly & Nanayakkara, 2009).
A care giver assesses the impact of traumas on the maintenance of symptoms.
It identifies fears such as; loud noises and normal separation in children. This is because children often experience fear of darkness and imaginary creatures and worries among other fears.
Fears may have physical and psychological impact on the child growth and development.
Using screening and assessment, the care giver assesses family background or history (Nauert, 2008). This assist him/her identify environmental, parenting styles and reinforcement triggers of anxiety in children.
Self-reporting strategies for anxiety during assessment such as; Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Disorder, (SCARED) and Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, (MASC) assist a care giver diagnose anxiety symptoms at baseline and monitor preventive responses in a child.

To support children with this disorder, a care giver routinely screen a child for anxiety, collect information from the child, parent and teacher, assess for comorbid disorder and evaluate the functional and severity impairment (American Psychiatric Association, 2008).
Information collected from the child helps a care giver assess severity of anxiety because the child herself/himself is more aware of his/her inner distress;
Teachers are skilled at observing the social functioning in relation to same age group/peers; the information they provide is important in assessing the child level of anxiety.
Parents stay with the child; thus, their information in regard to the child character is important for the care giver to assess the disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2008).
To meet the modalities available in complimentary therapy, a care giver should begin with psychotherapy on a child showing signs of mild anxiety. On a child showing moderate anxiety, a care giver should combine medication treatment and psychotherapy (Brady & Kendall, 1992). This is also useful when treating comorbid disorder.

Anxiety in a child is difficult to identify. This is because a child does not know how to express his/her feelings.
When a child shows signs such as; being tense, shy, nervous, and cautious and worry, a care giver should initiate screening to determine anxiety symptoms. This is because early screening help decrease the medical interventions.
Also, a care giver should assess somatic symptoms. This can help reduce confusion when a child is later subjected to medication.

American Psychiatric Association 1994, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, American Psychiatric Association, Washington DC

Brady, E and Kendall, PC 1992, Comorbidity of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. Psychol Bull, Vol111. Pp. 244–255.

Connolly, D and Nanayakkara, SD 2009, Anxiety Disorder in Children and Adolescents. Web.

Haworth, J and Hart, G 2012, Wellbeing Individual, community and social perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, London

Nauert, R 2008, Identify and Treat Child Anxiety Disorders. Web.