Children can experience academic pressure and high expectations that can result in stress.
However, if your children are provided with the proper support to help them manage academic stress, it can assist them with their overall performance and even make learning fun!
According to an online research paper writer’s statistics, almost 45% of students in high school claim to be stressed almost every day at school.
Some of the reasons for academic stress are:
- Exams and deadlines
- Juggling work and study
- Lack of proper time management
- Academic debt
- Completing assignments at the last minute and much more.
Our goal as parents and caregivers is to help children with stress management and ensuring they are completing their required tasks on time while encouraging them to build inner strength and resilience.
What is Stress for Students in the Academic Sector?
As said by Steve Maraboli, “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.”
Stress is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, stress encourages students to complete tasks on time and improve their overall studies.
Moreover, kids studying from elementary to high school need to learn the best ways to cope with stress at school. Helping children to cope with academic stress is an easy thing if it is done in the right way.
Signs and Symptoms of Academic Stress
There are four signs that show up in children due to academic stress:
- Physical Symptoms
- Emotional Symptoms
- Cognitive Symptoms
- Behavioral Symptoms
Physical Symptoms
- Children have headaches more often
- Missed period (Occurs among young girls)
- Rapid weight gain or loss
Emotional Symptoms
- Lack of patience
- Gets irritated or frustrated easily
- Lack of enjoyment in activities that normally interest them
Cognitive Symptoms
- Bad judgement about things and scenarios
- Lack of concentration
- Misplacing things or forgetting things easily
Behavioral Symptoms
- Generation of obsessive habits or biting nails more frequently
- Sleeping excessively or not long enough
- A massive change in eating habits
Best Ways to Help Your Child Relieve School Stress
There are plenty of ways to minimize academic pressure for students. Here in this article, we have listed out the top 10 ways. Let’s get started!
1. Pay Attention to their Activities
The prime step is to observe the problem even before solving it. Pay attention to the day-to-day activities of your child. Encourage them to study without much stress by making routines and time for homework.
Make sure that your children don’t study way too much or too less. Demonstrate balance.
If you find their stress at a high level, encourage them to rest.
2. Listen to your Children
Children are not good at handling their own stress. So, you need to build an environment in your home where they can communicate easily.
Encourage them to share their daily life experiences. If your child is not comfortable talking, suggest they write a journal in either paper or through different writing services available in the market.
3. Minimize Schedules
Make sure that your children have schedules that don’t accumulate stress. Scheduling can help students keep on track. But at the same time make sure to avoid over-scheduling which can cause prolonged stress in children.
Also, arrange proper breaks for the students where they can relax or do things that interest them, apart from studying.
4. Teach Different Calming Techniques
If your children are experiencing high levels of stress, you can practice different calming techniques such as:
- Go for a long walk
- Try a breathing exercise
- Go outdoors to enjoy nature
- Try Aromatherapy
5. Motivate Them
Being a parent, you must understand that not every child can study equally. Praise them even when they make small positive improvements.
Don’t ever compare your children with others. Instead, encourage them to adopt a healthy lifestyle and make improvements on a daily basis.
Instead of scolding or punishing them for their academic performance, suggest ways they might improve. Some of the ways to motivate them to include:
- Create a good reading atmosphere
- Encourage them to do things of their interest besides studying
- Suggest different learning styles and much more
6. Lead by Example
Students mostly learn by what they see. So, in order to make sure that your children are not stressed out due to academic stress, learn to calm yourself first.
Lead by example and teach them that stress may be harmful to an individual. Practice stress relieving techniques yourself and encourage your children to join.
7. Describe the Proper Characteristic of Success
Teach your children that only earning money or coming first in exams is not the ultimate value of success. Instead, tell them that success also means being healthy, having compassion, integrity and much more.
Tell them to remember the fact that being successful doesn’t only mean obtaining a good GPA at the end of every semester but also means the proper measure of value across a lifetime.
8. Reduce or Limit Technology Time
Living in the 21st century 95% of students have access to technology. Make sure that your children don’t spend too much time on social media or comparing themselves with others.
9. Use Proper Language
Your language plays a huge role in either motivating or demotivating your children. So, make sure to use your words wisely. Use words that encourage them.
10. Monitor their School Life
If you want to know about your children in detail. Monitor both their home and school activities.
At the same time make sure to give them their privacy. You can consult with teachers about your child’s overall performance.
Take note of how he/she is doing in their school both academically and behavioral-wise.
Wrapping Up:
There are plenty of ways to make school less stressful. All these small steps add up. To help children enjoy their studies as well as practice good mental health, it’s important to help your children learn how to deal with any stress that arises.