How to Support Stressed-Out Students

by | Oct 10, 2020 | Solid Tips | 1 comment

Seize Your Life Today

*This article may have affiliate links, which means we may receive commissions if you choose to purchase through links we provide (at no extra cost to you). For more details, please read our privacy policy/affiliate disclosure. Thank you for supporting the work we put into this blog!

Stress destroys the study. Stu­dents who suf­fer from stress are less like­ly to ful­fil their aca­d­e­m­ic poten­tial and less like­ly to be content. As a par­ent, you can help chil­dren avoid or remove the build-up of stress by teach­ing them time man­age­ment, mon­i­tor­ing their diet, sleep, and exer­cise by keep­ing an eye on their week­ly sched­ule and pro­vid­ing sup­port and encouragement. Aca­d­e­m­ic and soci­o­log­i­cal stud­ies have revealed that school stress is a real and seri­ous prob­lem for many stu­dents from pri­ma­ry school to high school. At School, unre­al­is­tic expec­ta­tions, per­fec­tion­ism among stu­dents and par­ents, too much work and not enough play can result in stress, anx­i­ety, and depression. Reports sug­gest that stan­dard­ized tests, which are becom­ing increas­ing­ly com­mon, are plac­ing undue stress on children. Experts have expressed con­cern that in the increas­ing­ly com­pet­i­tive and glob­al­ized world, stu­dents from vir­tu­al­ly any coun­try can com­pete for the same ter­tiary cours­es and the same jobs, stu­dents are under more pres­sure to excel. Of course, stu­dent stress can also result from the age-old prob­lems of a high work­load, peer pres­sure, and child­hood and ado­les­cence challenges. List­ed below are some prac­ti­cal strate­gies that any adult can use to help a child expe­ri­enc­ing school stress.

1- Be Aware

Look for indi­ca­tors such as self-harm, expres­sions of despair or hope­less­ness and even casu­al, off-hand remarks that may seem inno­cent but could be a sign of a deep­er problem.

2- Time Management

student stress l how to help stressed-out students l stress management in school l how to manage student stress l stress in students One of the most valu­able skills any stu­dent can learn is time man­age­ment. It will serve them well dur­ing their school years and lat­er in life. Have the stu­dent write down on paper, or elec­tron­i­cal­ly, a week­ly and dai­ly schedule. The sched­ule should include time peri­ods in which they will do home­work, pri­vate study, revi­sion and exam prepa­ra­tion, and include the time they will spend play­ing a sport and doing extra-cur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties such as Music, Dra­ma, Sci­ence Club Debating. The sched­ule will help them do the right activ­i­ty at the right time, avoid spend­ing too long on a par­tic­u­lar activ­i­ty, and decide if they can fit all of their activ­i­ties into a week. Impor­tant­ly, the week­ly sched­ule must include time peri­ods for the child to relax, hang out with friends and be a child. A dai­ly sched­ule can com­ple­ment the week­ly sched­ule. This shows the child how to fit dai­ly activ­i­ties into the day and avoid becom­ing over­whelmed or swamped with tasks. Sched­ules also help chil­dren to avoid doing some­thing they are very, very good at – Pro­cras­ti­nat­ing. The boy who spent three weeks in his room pre­tend­ing to study for his final high school exams, and emerged boast­ing that he had learned how to jug­gle – was prob­a­bly in need of a schedule.

3- Timing

Teach chil­dren to time their home­work. Teach them to assess how much time they should spend on a par­tic­u­lar task or sub­ject and stick to that time frame. Con­verse­ly, have the time for how long var­i­ous tasks take and iden­ti­fy which sub­jects might take longer. Dif­fer­ent stu­dents have dif­fer­ent strengths and weak­ness­es, so they may need to devote more time to a cer­tain subject. Final­ly, time man­age­ment skills can pre­vent one of the great­est caus­es of school stress – Cram­ming.

4- Homework

Some spe­cif­ic strate­gies which can help stu­dents to com­plete their home­work with stress include:

A- Planner

Use a year­ly plan­ner to keep track of assign­ments and major tasks through­out the year. Cross­ing off tasks, once com­plet­ed, is very satisfying.

B- Monitor

Do your child’s school post home­work tasks and assign­ments online? Can you access this infor­ma­tion? In most cas­es, yes. Your child won’t like being nagged, but, hey, that’s your job. Teach­ers also appre­ci­ate par­ents who sup­port their efforts to keep stu­dents on task.

C- Space

Cre­ate a con­ducive space to study—quiet, com­fort­able, free of dis­trac­tions such as TV and video games – and their phone.

D- Earlier the Better

Young peo­ple are more atten­tive in the morn­ing. By the after­noon and evening, they’re…well, you know. Please encour­age them to study in the morn­ing when their mind is fresh.

E- Check-in

Find out if your child is strug­gling aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, and try to act before it is too late. Aca­d­e­m­ic dif­fi­cul­ties are major sources of stress but can be solved with extra tutor­ing, home­work clubs, online resources or counselling.

How much is Too Much?

student stress l how to help stressed-out students l stress management in school l how to manage student stress l stress in students Is your child over­sched­uled? Are they doing too much? With so many activ­i­ties offered to chil­dren these days, it’s easy to enrol them in too many. Stu­dents face a sub­stan­tial work­load at school. Some stu­dents are then placed in exten­sion or advanced place­ment cours­es to increase their chances of enter­ing a selec­tive high school or a top ter­tiary institution. Many young peo­ple are also par­tic­i­pat­ing in extra-cur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties. If a child appears stressed, look at their reg­u­lar activ­i­ties and con­sid­er whether they are doing too much. Over­achiev­ing and gift­ed chil­dren need to be chal­lenged. Ask your­self, how­ev­er, is my child being chal­lenged, or just kept busy?

5- Sleep

Experts state that most chil­dren need 9 – 9.5 hours of sleep per night. Please do what you can to ensure chil­dren get enough sleep, such as keep­ing them away from elec­tron­ic devices and check­ing their room to make sure they are sleeping.

6- Exercise

student stress l how to help stressed-out students l stress management in school l how to manage student stress l stress in students Reg­u­lar exer­cise reduces stress. It works for adults, and it works for chil­dren. Chil­dren are grow­ing and need more exer­cise per day than the aver­age adult. Find ways to make sure your child is doing some exer­cise every day and ensure that at least some of this exer­cise is high inten­si­ty or exer­cise, rais­ing their heart­beat and get­ting their blood pumping. Enroll your child in a local sports team, which is a good social out­let as well. Take them for a hike or bike ride. If you live near the beach or a lake, take them for a swim – nev­er under­es­ti­mate the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of saltwater. Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty is a great form of stress relief, and with­out it, much of that stress will build up and build up with­in the child – and often be released in neg­a­tive ways.

7- Family Time

Com­mu­ni­cat­ing with your chil­dren can some­times be a chal­lenge. Often the last thing a teenag­er wants to do is com­mu­ni­cate with their par­ents or sib­lings. How­ev­er, if fam­i­ly time is made into a reg­u­lar habit in your house­hold, talk­ing to your chil­dren can become easier. Many experts sug­gest spend­ing at least 20 min­utes togeth­er, 4 – 5 times a week, to keep open the lines of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and check in on your chil­dren’s state of mind. If they are feel­ing stressed, you are more like­ly to spot the signs and to be able to do some­thing about the sit­u­a­tion if you spend time togeth­er as a fam­i­ly regularly. One of the best times to do this is at meal­times.

Are You the Cause?

Are you the cause of the child’s stress? Are you plac­ing too much pres­sure on your child or cre­at­ing unre­al­is­tic expectations? As a par­ent, it’s dif­fi­cult to ask your­self this ques­tion, and more dif­fi­cult to acknowl­edge, even if it is true. Take a step back and think about what you expect from your child, how you com­mu­ni­cate these expec­ta­tions to your child, and whether the stan­dards or the expec­ta­tions are real­is­tic or are in line with what the child wants.

How Do you Talk to Children about School?

Do you focus entire­ly on aca­d­e­m­ic grades or rank­ings? When you start a con­ver­sa­tion with your child about school, the first state­ment you make or the ques­tion you ask can have a major impact on the way they think about school. If chil­dren are con­stant­ly remind­ed about aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance in tests or their rank­ing, they may believe that aca­d­e­m­ic excel­lence is the only accept­able out­come and start to feel more stress. This may be the hard­est thing to do. You want the best for your child, and at some point, you will have to push your child to suc­ceed at school and in life – but please mon­i­tor how you do this!

8- Fun, fun, fun…

Chil­dren need to play. It’s in their nature, and it helps them to avoid and release stress. It is one thing that is miss­ing for over­sched­uled chil­dren. Chil­dren need time to play and for­get about oth­er pres­sures like school. The type of play can have an impact as well. Elec­tron­ic games are fun for many chil­dren, but they lead to more screen time, so they must be lim­it­ed. Unstruc­tured play out­side, in the fresh air with some form of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, is ide­al, as plays stim­u­late their imag­i­na­tion and let them laugh.

student stress l how to help stressed-out students l stress management in school l how to manage student stress l stress in students

Last but not least

You can help your child to avoid or over­come school stress. Mon­i­tor their sleep, exer­cise and diet, teach them time man­age­ment skills and sched­ul­ing, and lim­it their screen time. Con­sid­er the way you com­mu­ni­cate with them about school and your own expec­ta­tions of their achieve­ment. Spend time togeth­er as a fam­i­ly and remem­ber that hap­py, suc­cess­ful and well-bal­anced chil­dren need time to have fun.  

1 Comment

  1. nael
    nael on October 10, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    nice!

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join Our Mailing List To Receive The Latest News and Updates From Our Team. Don't Miss a Post! Get the Weekly Newsletter Sent Right to Your Inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!