| Author: Ruth Wells, M.S. |
With a possible war approaching in Iraq, plus the recent heightened terror alert, children and youth have plenty of legitimate reasons to be anxious. Youth who already have anxiety problems, are more likely to have difficulty coping with new anxiety-provoking events than youth who did not have pre-existing concerns. Anxiety tends to breed anxiety in some children.
Here are some creative ways to help quell the nerves of your more anxious youngsters so they may focus more on benefiting from the service your site is offering them.
CALM OR CLAMMY
Young children may have difficulty using verbiage to express, vent or even acknowledge internal chaos. If a child lacks the words to manage or comprehend anxiety, that's a sure way to exacerbate the problem. Give children the vocabulary they need to cope with anxiety. So, for some young children, the word "anxiety" may be a mouthful. Instead, consider substituting the word "clammy," and use a live clam, or the idea of clammy palms as the images to convey the meaning of the term. Use the term "calm" as a way to refer to the opposite of anxiety, the goal a child might wish to strive for.
The terms "clammy" and "calm" can be also be used with older youngsters too, and will be especially valuable with extremely anxious youth. The funny word "clammy" may not be as anxiety-producing as the word "anxiety" can be.
TOMMY CALMLY & TAMMY CLAMMY
All the child knows is that his tummy is queasy, her palms are sweaty, or he has shaky hands. As an adult, you immediately recognize those symptoms as classic signs of anxiety. Plus, as an adult, you know what to do to quell those symptoms a bit. Children often don't recognize the signs of anxiety, and they often don't know what to do about it.
Teach children the signs of anxiety and calm, and how to manage anxiety. Introduce Tommy Calmly and Tammy Clammy, who are two characters who can convey the signs of both calmness and anxiety. Have your youngsters create pictures of Tommy and Tammy, with Tommy Calmly showing what calm looks like, and Tammy Clammy conveying what anxiety look likes. Have your students brainstorm ways for Tammy Clammy to be less anxious too. The silly names for the two characters are useful in helping quell nerves; humor is almost always a terrific antidote for anxiety.
DON'T GO CRACKERS OVER NERVE-WRACKERS
Funny words and phrases are really worth using with highly anxious children and youth, thus the silly phrase above. Ask students to identify their personal "nerve-wrackers," and elicit answers like starting the school year, taking important tests and listening to adults fight. The more a child knows what triggers their anxiety, the more likely that they can ultimately control it.
ATTACK THE NERVE-WRACKERS
Discuss ways to manage those nerve-wrackers that the students listed per the intervention directly above. Anxiety-producing events often generate less anxiety when the youngster has been helped to become a "veteran" at managing those concerns. It is very hard to sustain anxiety over repeated discussions, role-plays, practice sessions, and so on. Mere exposure can help
diminish the intensity of the problematic reaction.
BE A MELLOW FELLOW
Here's a very unusual, but effective way to help students ease extreme anxiety. This intervention is best done with your entire group at once. Seek a private space to work with a single student as the intervention can look a bit strange to
passersby. Ask the anxious student to stretch out one arm as far as they can, and to tense that arm as hard as they can, for as long as they can sustain it. It is exhausting to maintain that position for more than a very brief moment, and the child will be forced to relax their arm, and to some degree, relax a bit overall. This intervention is also a powerful way to assist children to understand how taxing it is to be very anxious a lot of the time.
NEED MORE INFORMATION on Anxiety-Reducing Interventions?
The interventions in this issue are typical of those found in our books except the lessons in our books often include cartoons and other handouts. To get free sample materials and more information, visit youthchg.com, link below.
Help! My Class is Out of Control!
"They're yelling." "They're disrespectful." "They're rude." "They're inattentive." "They're off task." "They're side-talking." Does that describe your class or group? If it does, you're not alone. Those are the nonstop complaints we've
been hearing at our workshops and at Live Expert Help on our web site. The classroom management issues are serious, frequent and dominant, but we're here to help.
Here's the answer to the misbehavior. You have to teach the behaviors before you can expect them. This does not mean restating the expectations. This means that you actually teach the specific skills that you want to see in your classroom or group room. This means that you teach each aspect of the target behavior, just as you must teach all elements of spelling or riding a bike, in order to ensure mastery. So, you have to teach all the skills for acting in a respectful manner, talking one at a time, hand raising, focusing, and so on.
Although we won't include any here, be sure that you use lots of our popular motivation-makers so your youngsters value your site and service. ( The more students value your service, the more their behavior will reflect that.
Similarly, the less they value your service, the more their behavior will reflect that too. Here are some ways to teach "mouth control", but don't forget to cover all the other behaviors that youth and children need to act acceptably in your setting:
Give Me Five
This is a fun intervention for younger students. Have the child give you a "high five" slap while saying: "High Five! 2 ears listening. 2 eyes watching. 1 mouth shut."
Do the Wave
This is an incredibly fun intervention that doesn't come alive at all in writing; you simply have to give it a try to appreciate how wonderful it is. This intervention can be used with any age group. Raise your hand, then teach your group to fall silent while rhythmically clapping to this beat: 1-2, 1-2-3 (two slow claps and then three fast.) Most classes quickly learn to instantly transform from rowdy to silent. The effect of the sudden clapping is similar to a crowd doing the wave at a basketball game. Allow students to take turns performing the job of raising a hand to initiate the clapping. You end up with a very quiet room-- with no work required on your part to achieve it.
The Mouth Goes Shut
This device is fun with any age group, and it's quick and simple. You simply raise your hand and teach your class: "When the hand goes up, the mouth goes shut." If you wish, a student can perform the raising the hand part of this intervention for you.
Dragnet Helps
This device generates instant quiet. Sing the theme of the TV show, Dragnet: dun da-dun dun, dun da-dun dun. Teach students to be quiet in time to sing the last note with you. (The entire tune: dun da-dun dun, dun da-dun dun, dun!)
Classroom Behavior Barometer
Craft a barometer out of poster board and show green, yellow and red areas on the barometer. Label the green area as "Go," the yellow as "Caution," and the red as "Stop." Affix a moveable pointer and move it as necessary to alert the class to how well they are controlling their verbal behavior. You may use a traffic light signal instead of a barometer, if you prefer.
How Often to Talk
This intervention is so simple, yet so often overlooked. Ideally, every teacher or counselor would offer this help to their group at first contact. Kids do not magically know how often to talk during your class or group. Some talk nonstop while others never speak at all. Have your class establish a recommended number of times to talk per hour. You can even create a chart to show each group member how they are doing. But it's important to remember that you must give specific, quantifiable goals to students prior to expecting them to conform. Without a specific number, many children will be unable to discern what is a "reasonable number of times to talk." If you have problems with talk-outs, test out this suggestion. You may be very surprised.
The Talk Thing
Younger children, youth with ADHD, and many other populations, can have trouble maintaining proper "mouth control." If you don't like to require hand raising, or you have found it ineffective, then consider using a "talk thing." "What's that?" you wonder. A talk thing is any item that you designate, but prior to talking, the youngster must be holding the talk thing. You can use a tennis ball, a pen, or any item that your group selects. You are simply substituting external structure for that lack of internal control. Many youngsters find the talk thing to be silly and fun, and may comply more readily. For youth who impulsively speak out a lot, the talk thing can provide brakes
Want more classroom management interventions like the mouth-control methods above? Could you use more techniques to manage unmanageable, uncontrollable kids? Come to our workshop or check out the many additional interventions for mouth control in our books, instant ebooks and web site. Visit our web site for details. |
Author Bio:
Get much more information on this topic at www.youthchg.com and theclassroommanagementsite.com. See hundreds more of innovative, problem-stopping interventions at the Youth Change web site. Ruth Wells MS is the director of Youth Change. Ruth is the author of dozens of books including the popular Temper and Tantrum Tamers, Turn On the Turned-Off Student, Last Chance School Success Guide and Maximum-Strength Motivation-Makers. She annually trains hundreds of teachers, counselors and youth professionals in staff development workshops, conferences, seminars and in-service throughout the country. Get free samples and see 100s more of her problem-stopping interventions at Youth Change's web site. Ruth is the author of dozens of books and ebooks, and conducts professional development workshops. Please visit us at our website at www.youthchg.com or feel free to call us at 1-800-545-5736. |
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