How Teachers Can Help Anxious Kids in Class

Help Anxious Kids in a Stressful World: 25 Classroom Strategies 
By David Campos and Kathleen McConnell Fad
(Free Spirit Publishing, 2023 – Learn more)

Reviewed by Kasey Short

Help Anxious Kids in a Stressful World is an amazing resource for teachers and counselors. Immediately after reading it, I told our school counselor she had to get it. The authors clearly knew their audience when creating this book. It is easy to read and utilize for educators while containing all the resources needed to implement the strategies successfully.

Over the years I have collaborated with our counselor to design lessons to help our middle school students learn social and emotional skills in advisory and have also created content lessons that foster these skills. This book will be an excellent resource to add to those lessons and specifically address anxious students in a time when anxiety is consistently on the rise.

Understanding anxiety

The book begins by providing necessary facts about anxiety that would be helpful for educators and then goes on to explain why teachers are important to student mental health.

It also provides specific examples of how anxiety might look in schools and provides context to help teachers know what they are looking for. This is especially important in schools that may not have sufficient counselors and mental health resources for teachers and students.

At the end of each chapter that leads up to the strategies, there is a place for the reader to write out a reflection in a chart with questions connected to “Here’s What,” “So What,” and “Now What.” I loved this part of the book. I process my thoughts by writing, and it helps me to get my ideas down and think through the information provided. This would be an excellent resource if readers are using this book for a faculty book club or professional development

Before diving into the strategies there is a chart that provides a quick way to see what strategies might help with your needs by showing if the strategy addresses the following domains: physiological, behavioral, social and emotional, and/or academic or cognitive. This will help readers who may not have time to read all the strategies to start with choose those that best fit their students’ needs.

Detailed strategies for classroom teachers

The rest of the book is 25 strategies with all the background and resources needed to immediately implement them in a classroom. Each one begins with a “Ready” section that explains why it is important, then a “Set” section that provides what you need to know and do before implementing the strategy, and then a “Go” section that provides step-by-step instruction on how to execute this strategy complete with handouts, resources, and even specific questions for students. The activities range from individual, small groups and whole group and many can be adapted to different types of instruction.

This book will allow teachers who are not mental health experts or counselors to successfully help their students by having instructions and examples available to them. There are also strategies that include cue cards such as deep breathing and count down cards. Teachers can print and laminate them for multiple uses. The strategies are beneficial for all students, not just those with anxiety.

I found many strategies that all students could benefit from, especially “Thanks of Three,” “Go, Move and Focus,” and “School Thanks.” One of my favorite activities was the “Worry Plan.” I know many students who could benefit from naming what they are worried about and finding ways to work through their worry as well as committing to talking about it with someone.

This book includes a digital link for printable content and easy access to the materials in the book. This added feature will help teacher avoid having to make copies from the book and allow for sharing some content digitally with students as needed.

For elementary through middle school students

The activities in Help Anxious Kids in a Stressful World can work for students in elementary through middle school and will help those who may struggle with anxiety as well as those who do not. I also recommend teachers to do the strategies alongside their students for their own wellness and to model the importance of these strategies to their students.

Kasey Short (@shortisweet3) is the Middle School Director of Studies and an 8th Grade English Teacher and Advisor at Charlotte (NC) Country Day School. She loves to share ideas from her classroom and her leadership roles and writes frequently for MiddleWeb. 

Kasey attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she earned a bachelor of arts in middle school education with a concentration in English and history. She went on to earn a master’s in curriculum and instruction from Winthrop University.