If you’ve ever experienced anxiety or know someone who has, you know how stressful and debilitating it can be. For children, these effects and symptoms can be even more overwhelming. While your child is already balancing school, schoolwork, chores, and trying to make friends, they may also be falling behind in school and exhibiting behavioral issues because of their anxiety.
As time goes on, their symptoms can worsen and become physical — resulting in sickness and other uncomfortable reactions. If you think your child’s anxiety results from going to school, it’s a good idea to look into other alternatives that accommodate their needs, like cyber school.
Understanding Anxiety and What Causes It
Children with anxiety will often feel uncomfortable in social situations and learning environments for many different reasons. Some children may not even be able to explain the root of their anxiety, while others may articulate that they fear interacting with others or become stressed in a room full of unfamiliar people.
While anyone can have anxiety, some biological and environmental factors — such as having a parent with anxiety or experiencing a past traumatic experience — can also contribute to intense anxiety. However, even if you have no history of anxiety in your family, it’s not uncommon for young children to have anxiety.
Research shows that about 9.4%, or 5.8 million, children between the ages of three and 17 suffer from anxiety. As children reach their adolescent and teen years, the likelihood of anxiety grows, with 25.1% of children between 13 and 18 affected by anxiety disorders.
If you’re wondering if your child has anxiety, here are some common signs and symptoms to look for:
- Stomach aches
- Clingy behavior with family
- Trouble sleeping
- Inability to concentrate
- Irritability
- Shaking or rapid breathing
- Consistent worrisome thoughts and fears
- Reluctance or refusal to go to school
Your child may exhibit these symptoms of anxiety in the classroom or feel the effects of them at home as they anticipate going to school throughout the week.
How Does Anxiety Affect Children’s Learning?
While experiencing anxiety is difficult enough, it can significantly affect your child’s ability to focus on learning and completing their assignments. Studies show that anxiety in young children makes focusing in school more challenging, increases their feelings of social exclusion, and even leads to behavior problems.
These constant feelings of stress, accompanied by physical symptoms, make it easier to understand why your child might feel distracted at school or not want to interact with others. Doing schoolwork and participating in class can become huge obstacles for your child if their anxiety is severe, which can affect their developmental growth and ability to stay on task. These high emotions and ongoing worries can also come in the form of social anxiety, separation anxiety, and specific phobias — such as an irrational fear.
How Online Learning Alleviates Student Anxiety
While going to school can be an exciting time for most kids, it can be extremely daunting for those with anxiety. Having anxiety can feel isolating, making your child feel they don’t fit in at school.
Anxiety also causes physical symptoms that make it nearly impossible for your child to perform well in school due to severe stomach aches or even vomiting. Your child’s physical and mental health is priority, but their education doesn’t need to fall behind either.
A great solution and alternative to in-person school is online school. Online school allows your child to experience the classroom from home — removing their feelings of fear about attending school and worrying about engaging with others.
When in a traditional setting, children can easily compare themselves to other students who don’t experience anxiety and feel they are falling behind or embarrassed when it takes them longer to complete an assignment. Loud classroom settings also make it difficult for students with anxiety to concentrate, but online learning alleviates these problems and benefits your child in other ways.
Personalized Schedule
Traditional education teaches every student at the same pace and requires the exact same deadlines for all assignments. However, every student is different and learns at a different rate. This can be a reason why so many students with anxiety appear to fall behind when, in reality, they really just need some adjustments to accommodate their learning style.
Online learning also offers a more personalized experience. Students with anxiety may find it difficult to handle multiple tasks at once and online learning lets them work at their own pace and on their own schedule. Students can work ahead in subjects they excel at while getting a bit of extra time on assignments they tend to struggle with. This individual education style gives your child more flexibility to succeed without feeling left behind.
More Support
In a school with hundreds — or even thousands — of other students, it can be difficult for your child to connect with teachers and peers while maintaining their grades.
Children with anxiety need individualized support that allows them to succeed in and out of the classroom. Online learning makes it much easier for students to interact with others without feeling overwhelmed or pressured by their fears. From counselors, coaches, and teachers, your child will benefit from additional support and academics that align with their goals and interests.
Though they will be learning from home, they won’t be alone. Instead, your child will have more time and energy to focus on their learning with the help of other peers and increase their concentration skills.
Is Online School Good for Social Anxiety?
Online school offers nearly all the advantages of in-person school and lets them narrow their focus to the task at hand without worrying about their external environment. To put this in perspective, consider how stress and anxiety in adults are significantly reduced when working from home compared to in-office. You can apply the same logic for your child gaining knowledge and learning skills from home.
Here are the numerous benefits of online learning that help students with anxiety to succeed:
- Personalized learning to help work through major student stressors
- Comfort of being home alleviates separation anxiety
- Lack of stress and anxiety caused by loud social situations
- A flexible learning environment with the familiarity of a home environment
- Enabling students to feel more comfortable asking questions and engaging with teachers
Choosing Commonwealth Charter Academy
Online school for students with anxiety is an excellent way to ensure your child’s academic and personal growth. At Commonwealth Charter Academy, we offer education and services specifically designed and implemented to alleviate student stress and anxiety — and personalized learning is one of our top priorities. We like to meet our students where they are and customize their curriculum to fit their needs, helping them achieve their goals and succeed beyond graduation.
CCA offers the following Career Pathways for our online students:
- Science and health
- Human services
- Arts and communication
- Business, finance, and information technology
- Engineering and industrial technology
In addition to these pathways, we ensure every student receives the benefit of customized learning goals through our personalized education program. Our extensive staff — including teachers, school counselors, and career-facilitation consultants — dedicate their time to understanding every student’s individual needs, goals, interests, skills, and post-high school aspirations.
With personalized academic programs, students can also access:
- Internships
- College in the High School
- Summer courses
- Independent study
- Clubs and activities
- Field trips
We provide these services and other benefits to help guide your child along their learning path while simultaneously setting them up for a productive college or career experience.
Learn More About CCA Today
At CCA, we know how important it is for your child to receive a quality, personalized education. Every child deserves the opportunity to learn in an environment that considers all aspects of their lives. Our services are ideal for students with many different forms of anxiety, giving them the opportunity to grow at their own pace and set their own goals.
The dedicated staff at CCA is ready to help manage your child’s anxiety, and online school will give them the platform to do so. Contact us today to learn more about our personalized learning programs and our services for cyber school students. You can also contact a CCA parent to hear about others’ experiences with our programs.
