With increasing competition and focus on academic performance, exams have become an extremely stressful time for children and their parents. Performance anxiety, fear of failure, feeling unprepared and a whole other range of reasons can cause exam stress in teenagers. Exam stress in children not only impacts their performance, but affects their physical and mental health too. While parents cannot fully alleviate the stress, they can play a vital role in tackling exam stress and anxiety in children:
MOTIVATE THEM: Talk positively to your child around exam time and help them think of their long term goals rather than focusing too much on the upcoming exams. To take off some of the exam pressure in teenagers, ensure them that academic performance is not the only benchmark of success in life. Let them know that not doing well is not the end of the world. Motivate them to perform to the best of their ability without worrying about rank or percentage. Encourage your child to explore his areas of interest outside academics to figure out where his talent lies. Give him the assurance that there are other career options apart from academic subjects.
GIVE THEM THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT: As way to lessen exam stress in your child, you can ensure that he has a comfortable and quite place to prepare for his examinations. You can lessen some of the exam pressure in children by giving him the right environment to study which increases his concentration. It’s important that parents create a clutter free and peaceful place in the house for the child to study.
HELP THEM PREPARE: By helping your teenager draw up a study schedule and by helping him revise before the exams, you can reduce some of the anxiety in children. A revision schedule with details of subjects and timings will help them priorities their topics. In this way they can allocate time to subjects according to their weakness and strengths. Revisions make children feel more prepared, and helping your child with revision sessions or making him solve past test papers will boost his confidence.
GIVE THEM REWARDS: A little sense of normalcy under high pressure situations can really help in providing some relief from anxiety in children. Before and during exams make special effort to give small treats to your child like taking them out for an ice-cream or taking them for a meal to their favourite restaurant. By offering small, frequent treats and rewards, you can help your child unwind and relax, shedding some of the exam stress in teenagers. Allowing them time for fun activities like going out for a coffee or movie with friends, dedicated television time, or even pursuing their favourite sport, helps children recharge their brains and prevents fatigue from setting in. Even after the exams are over, you can treat your child to a special outing to keep him from mulling over his performance and results.
APPRECIATE THEIR EFFORTS: When children are preparing for their exams and working hard, appreciation of their efforts encourages them to put their best foot forward. While praising the child, the focus should be on the efforts that they are putting in, regardless of the outcome. Children need to know it is their effort and hard work which really matters to you and not the results. By giving this reassurance you can really help your child in tackling exam stress.
ENCOURAGE THEM TO EXERCISE: Physical and mental well-being is crucial in building the capacity to deal with high stress situations like examinations. Physical activity and exercises helps boost energy levels and increases the minds’ ability to think and retain information. By going for a brisk walk or a swim, your child will get a break from the monotony of studies, making him feel recharged. Meditation and yoga during exams relaxes both the mind and the body, sharpening a child’s memory, attention span, and the ability to focus. Even half an hour of exercise every day can lighten your child’s day and put him in a positive mood. Group activities like sports or dancing, stimulates the mind through interaction with other people and keeps the body fit too.
TAKE CARE OF THEIR DIET: Exam stress in teenagers can have a huge impact on their appetite, where on one end it can completely vanish, or on the other end can cause frequent hunger pangs. Both the situations are extremely unhealthy for kids and are a sign of stress related depression. In such a scenario it is very important for parents to take care of their child’s diet and ensure that they are eating healthy and balanced meal. You can prepare food items which are your child’s favourite so that they eat even if their appetite has dropped. Alternatively, light and yummy meals, low on salt and sugar, but high on energy, can be prepared to meet an unnatural increase in appetite. Make sure that your kids are well hydrated at all times and stock up your cupboard with healthy snacking options for mid meal hunger pangs. Food is the last thing you want your child to worry about while preparing for their exams.
ENSURE PROPER SLEEP: It’s hugely important that parents encourage minimum eight hours’ of sleep for their children. Proper and enough sleep, helps improve thinking and concentration in children. Also, with enough rest, children are less likely to get moody and irritable due to exam stress. As a means to help your child tackle exam stress, acquaint him with the importance of giving the body a chance to rebuild its energy levels through proper sleep. Inform them that in order for them to remain fit, it is vital to give the body sufficient amount of rest. Lack of sleep due to staying up all night during exams only increases anxiety in children and negatively impacts their performance. For this reason, parents need to keep a close watch on their teenagers’ sleep-study pattern, ensuring that they are getting enough shut eyes. Lack of sleep impairs the ability to think clearly and focus, and causes children to forget all that they have worked so hard to learn.
DO NOT COMPARE: When dealing with anxiety in children due to exams, it is very important that parents recognize their child’s performance abilities and not compare them with better performing siblings, friends or classmates. Comparing them with other children will only make things worse and can de-motivate them. Parents need to familiarize themselves with their child’s capacity and accept their limitations. Constant comparisons put undue pressure on children, fanning their anxiety. Instead of encouraging them to constantly meet their parent’s expectations, constant comparison can push them into giving up all together.
TALK TO THEM ABOUT EXAM STRESS: Children flourish in an environment where they have an outlet to talk about and express their feeling. To reduce exam stress in teenagers, parents need to encourage their children to share their feelings and any sense of discomfort they may be experiencing. While leaving your child alone to study is important, check on him to ensure that he is not unusually quiet or withdrawn, which is a symptom of exam related stress in children. Remind your child that feeling anxious is perfectly normal and share with him your own stories of exam time nervousness and stress. Helping your child talk about and face their fears will help them relieve the stress and anxiety, instead of keeping it suppressed inside themselves. By facing their fears they will be able to put their nervous energies to positive use rather than to destructive thoughts.
BE FLEXIBLE AND CALM: Parents feel the heat of exam stress as much as their children. To avoid passing their stress to kids, parents need to stay calm during their child’s exams. Overlook your child’s untidy room and don’t pressurize them to help you with household chores. While sticking to the study time table, allow flexibility and let your child take breaks outside the schedule once in a while. Do not throw a fit or criticize your child for not putting in enough hours and working hard enough. By being inflexible and apprehensive, parents increase the anxiety in children which can translate into negative thoughts and behavior.
Examinations today have become the benchmark of a child’s intellectual ability and are regarded as predictors of their future success. Under such tremendous pressure, parents need to help their children cope with and figure out their feelings, before they break under it. Children often tend to become pessimistic under performance anxiety which can cause major exam stress in children. With support and guidance, and by sharing their worries, parents can help tackle exam stress in teens