Helping anxious students move forward

The December 2017/January 2018 edition of Educational Leadership includes an article by Jessica Minahan, "Helping Anxious Students Move Forward," that suggests implementing strategic accommodations in order to help anxious students be successful. A quarter of teenagers suffer from some anxiety disorder, with less than half being identified and receiving treatment (see here). This means our schools are full of students struggling to handle day to day existence.
Minahan identifies four common executive function  skills that students with anxiety often struggle with: accurate thinking, initiation, persistence, and help seeking. She then suggests some interventions that might help these young people become more successful.

• Accurate thinking- virtually all people with anxiety disorders and depression suffer from issues around accurate thinking. It may range from all-or-nothing thinking (ex. either I am a star or a failure) to catastrophic thinking (ex. I don't know the answer. I am so stupid I will never graduate.) to just constant negative thinking (ex. I cannot be successful, complete the project, have a friend...). The trick is to work at transforming this maladaptive thinking into accurate thinking. Possible interventions include
• rating a task before and after completion and comparing ratings.
• charting the aspects of a task and categorizing the elements as neutral, like or don't like (writing a paper- using proper capitalization, spelling, discussing the idea with someone, completing a graphic organizer, typing, writing in complete sentences...). Students can be shown that while there are aspects of the task that are disliked, it is not all bad.
• reframing language- It is "I cannot do this yet" or "I need help to know where to go" or "Everyone needs help with ___ at first."
• Initiation- I like the comment that she uses on page 48, "It isn't realistic to ask negative thinking, anxious students who lack initiation skills to begin work independently." We need to get these students started. If we assist within 30 seconds of assigning materials, it can dissuade negative thinking. Admittedly, with a class of  25 kids, 8 or more of whom are anxious, this is a challenge, but small groups, partner work and using co-teachers, paraprofessionals, and volunteers effectively can help.
• Students can preview assignments with teachers earlier in the day or the night before.
• Chunking material- one page at a time, limiting the number of problems, sheets with some problems already complete rather than totally blank- can help.
• Provide sentence starters to get them off and running on a writing assignment.
• Whiteboards to make it not a permanent feature.
• Ask for help to start. Skip the problem you are stuck on and move on.
• Change seats to limit distractions.
• Positive self-talk- if I work for 3 minutes I can take a break, do the first five problems then take a break, I can do this.
• Persistence- The author suggests using the Dweck statement, "Every time you push out of your comfort zone to learn hard things, your brain grows new connections and you get smarter" (p. 48). Some useful strategies for developing persistence include:
• skipping the hard problems and doing the easy ones first,
• working with a classmate,
• check the problems that are completed,
• take a quick break,
• pair the task with something pleasant (ex. comfy chair, soft pleasant music),
• picture the completed project, have a checklist to mark off the completed portions of a task (children with executive function challenges often have difficulty with visualization so model projects, papers and assignments can help them to approach the task),
• set a reward for completing a task (Grandma principal- do your work then have a cookie).
• Asking for Help- So many kids struggle with this. They may not recognize the need for help early enough, they may feel stupid if they ask for help, they may not have enough initiative to ask.
• Normalize the request process- everyone gets a red cup (I need help) and a green cup (I'm good).
• Provide options for asking- raise a hand, show a card, catch an eye and nod,... Then require a specific ask. Not I need help, but I cannot find the answer to number five, or I do not understand what the question is asking for when it says____, or I do not remember the formula. Often merely solidifying the question can lead them to being able to solve it themselves.
• A teacher can also respond with strategies to help answer the questions. Where did you find the answer to question four? It should be after that. Look at the subtitles. Do they give us any clues? What part of the question is challenging? Let's look in the glossary/dictionary for what that means and see if we can figure it out. Where is your formula sheet? I bet it has the one you need. This takes more time than- on page 76 halfway down, it is asking you to tell all about the three branches- what does the legislature do? the judicial? the executive? The formula is f=ma.
• Some students will need a check in. They may show a pattern of not following directions so have them restate them. They may need reinforcement after each section or activity. Let them ask for a check-in to see if they are on the right track.
• Reinforce common strategies like raise your hand, ask three then me (peers may be easier to ask than adults), hand the teacher a note, look in your notes/notebook/binder/book for help, ask to work with a classmate.

Provide a  self-monitoring sheet with strategy options. This helps with preventing dependence. Teaching strategies and self-monitoring is an essential step toward independence. Specifically labeling challenges and identifying interventions helps avoid all or none thinking. Prompting to refer to a checklist might be enough to get the child going.

In reading we talk about independent, instructional and frustration level material. In many ways this applies to all academic tasks. If students are being asked to work at an independent level when the demands of the task are at their frustration level, the result is not going to be pretty. If the reading to too challenging (Common Core rigor can be to challenging for some) student will not be able to independently use the material. If his writing skills are at a second grade levels, asking for a five paragraph essay is beyond his independent ability. If you want students to work independently, they need to be doing tasks they can complete independently. If they need check ins then they cannot perform independently. If it is crazy beyond their capacity, they need alternate work (ex. draw a picture of what happens, do three paragraphs not five, use a video rather than a text, do two digit multiplication rather than 3), modified materials/responses  (ex. chunk the reading into smaller sections, larger font/fewer questions on a page to make it less distracting and appear easier, audiobooks, voice to text technology, oral reports, sentence starters, multiplication charts, lower reading level texts), or lots of scaffolding and support. These strategies and others are often used to help students with learning disabilities. They also can help those with mental health issues.