Planning and Organization for Kids With Anxiety

Overview

Planning and Organization is by far the most important executive skill for kids for anxiety, equal, in fact, to any understanding of factoring binomials or The Declaration of Independence. Without one, a student makes success on a tangible level far more difficult to obtain, entirely subject to the triggers for worry. There’s a reason that we start with establishing an effective system of planning in our program. In instituting better organization for an anxious student, remarkable changes in academic fortunes often occur. Students struggling with Bs or Cs suddenly become straight A students in planning for assignments, rather than taking them as they come. After all, an essay due the next day is infinitely harder than the one due in two weeks, and for no more complicated reason than time. Learning to master time rather than be its servant fundamentally alters anxious students’ relationship to their academics, which in turn builds confidence they need to lean into their triggers, rather than practice the avoidance that often attends conditions of anxiety.