Test anxiety and how parents can help

Transcription:

A certain amount of test anxiety is well within normal limits. In fact, anxiety can cause us to do some positive things. For example, if a child is anxious about a test, one way to quell that anxiety is to study for the test. That's the positive use of the anxiety. However, there are some children get so anxious, that it does what we call, squashes their perceptual field. By that we mean, they think less clearly, they can't recall information, they lose their words. Very often, these children want to be high achievers. They want to do well on the test. They have a "what if" question that goes on in their mind, which is, "What if I don't do well on this test?" "What if I fail this test?" One of the things we want for the parent to do is to talk to the child and tell them, "Just do the best that you can. It doesn't have to be perfect." It is a good idea to study to conquer their anxiety. Those are just some of the things that a kid can do to get through some of their test anxiety.

Video Categories: ELEMENTARY, Elementary Education, Testing, TEEN, Education, Testing

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Expert Bio

Alan Yellin, PhD

Psychologist

Dr. Alan Yellin is a licensed psychologist as well as licensed marriage and family therapist. He has been in practice for over 30 years working with children, adolescents and adults. Dr. Yellin did his post-doctoral fellowship at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. In his practice, he sees children with learning problems, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, fears and social skills issues. Additionally, he has a sub-specialty in working with children from divorced families as well as helping parents deal more effectively with their divorce. Dr. Yellin’s practice also includes working with adolescents and adults with depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive issues as well as issues around life passages. Dr. Yellin believes that therapy works best when the client and therapist have a collaborative relationship as they explore thoughts and feelings and work towards solutions, and uses a combination of scientific data along with humor to help people achieve change. He is in a long-term happy marriage and has two grown children.

Parenting expert on: Emotional Support for Children, Separation Anxiety, Separation Anxiety, Diseases and Disorders

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