Leah Vennell

- PB4L – Understanding Anxiety: Prediction and Control

- Anxiety and stress is normal – it depends on how you defined it
- It’s okay to feel anxiety and stress – building resilience

What do we see when we find a child with anxiety? …

A B C
Set them off? Look like ? Because?
Teacher request Fast breathing Anxiety is reduced in the
Change of routine Tears moment
Noise Sore tummies
New… Sobbing
Board Hide
Family Checking in / shy
Expectations Eyes wide
themselves/family/peers/teachers Running
Fear of family Tantrums
Smells Out of control
Mistakes Absent
Weather
Bad choices
Lack of confidence
Lack of resilience
Sirens
Blamed
Storms

Self-sabotaging is normal behaviour for students with anxiety as they need control and the way
teachers handle the situation sometimes allows empower their negative behaviours.

Exposure to risks builds resilience

Research tells us that availability of media has a big influence on what students know and how they
cope with the content/context given adds stress and anxiety to children

Teaching expectations and routines is a must… everyone functions better if they know what they are
doing and why

4:1 positive praise – recognising when students do something right NEEDS to be acknowledged and
explaining why there behaviour has been acknowledged

To have curiosity students need to be safe, specific, explicit feedback is essential

What you pay attention to, will grow well!

Every single interaction has an audience – be deliberate in your actions – Relationships build safety

Scaffold tasks so students can’t get it wrong – errorless learning

Legitimate opportunity to have control – safe spot for students, voluntary time out, especially if a
student struggles in areas of the school ie assemblies

Routines need to be established, consistent and visual – information needs to be shared – need to
see what is coming all day every day