Children who have school phobia

Many are the children who do not want to go to school or who even go on truancy, but there are some who feel real terror. School phobia is one of the childhood anxiety disorders that affects the child's development in a more negative way. What does it consist of?

The school phobia is characterized by an intense rejection that leads the child to suffer a level of intense anxiety at the thought of having to go to school.

Being a phobia, we are talking about a excessive and irrational fear that is triggered by the presence or anticipation of an object or bind a certain situation. Which leads to the child's attempt to avoid going to school so as not to suffer the anxiety or anguish that this entails.


Symptoms of school phobia

- Problems to go to school, prolonged absences, that is, the child stays at home and these absences are consented to by their parents.

- Intense emotional discomfort: fear, irritability or excessive physical complaints as a means of not having to go to school.

Causes of school phobia

- Bad direct experience at school. One of the frequent causes is that the child has a bad relationship with a teacher or partner, so, the child will try by all means to avoid these situations by not attending school.

- Bad experience told by other people. It is not necessary that the child has suffered a bad experience in his skin, it is enough that he has seen it in another partner to avoid going through the same thing.


- Reinforcement by the family. It appears when the child is given more attention at times when he shows fear or complains at home than when he does not. In this way, we empower the phobia to be maintained and serve as a bridge for the child to get our attention.

- Personality traits. Due to lack of social skills, shyness, tendency to remain isolated, etc.

What should parents do against school phobia?

- The child should not miss school. If we do not encourage you to go to school, it will help to increase the fear or panic about the school situation. Talk to the child about how he feels. Trying to understand how it feels, to think if we have experienced a similar situation in our childhood, will help to connect with the feeling of panic from "child to child". Maybe this helps that instead of getting angry we can empathize more with them.


- Help put words to what the child feels. Putting words into the situation that the children pass will help to understand and connect the physical symptoms with their emotional discomfort. For example, if the child feels a strong pain in the belly, the most likely thing is a symptom caused by the nerves he feels at the thought of going to school.

- Go to a specialist. It is important that parents can consult with a specialist, so that the child can have their own space to work on their discomfort.

Noelia de Santiago Monteserín

Video: Medical Mondays: Anxiety, Fear and Phobia-Helping Your Child Cope


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