Emotionally Based School Avoidance Information for

Transcript:Emotionally Based School Avoidance Information for:
Emotionally Based School Avoidance Information for parents and carers Anxiety, or worry, is a totally normal emotion that everyone experiences at some point. Emotions such as fear or anxiety help our brains and bodies to know how to respond to situations. An example would be having butterflies and feeling worried about an upcoming test. This is a normal reaction to a test situation but sometimes children can worry much more than other children and this can stop them from taking part in things. When children avoid school due to anxiety, this is called Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Wigan Educational Psychology Service The diagram shows that one way to respond to school-based anxiety can be to avoid school. This can make children feel better initially, but lead to further avoidance. When avoiding school reduces the anxiety, it can make the thought of going back to school even more worrying for them. It is really important to act as soon as we can to get children back into education and enjoying their school years. Often, the first signs of EBSA occur at home. For example, your child may say they have tummy ache or a headache, or may resist getting up and ready in the morning on certain days). Because of this, it is really important that you speak to someone at school as soon as you can because they may not be aware that there is a problem. Responding to EBSA What is Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA)? Protective factors and risk factors There are many things that might affect how your child feels about school. Some of these will be school-based factors (such as test anxiety, peer groups or relationships with staff) and some of these might non school-based (such as worries about their family or friendships outside of school). These factors can either be protective, and make them less likely to experience EBSA, or risk factors and make EBSA more likely. What can we do to help? Together our job, as parents, carers and adults supporting you and your child, is to try and work out what the risk and protective factors are. We can then use the protective factors as strengths to build upon, and to put a plan in place to address the risk factors. The diagram below shows examples of how these factors can seem to pull children towards either home or school. A really