How School Counselors Can Help Your Student
by Valerie Kirk
byAlyssa Austin
4 min to readBetween rigorous programming, high expectations for performance, and constant demands on their time and attention, school can easily become a source of stress for students. This is especially true for online school students, who must deal with those stressors in a flexible schedule environment without the time framework and structure of traditional school.
High levels of stress aren’t healthy for anyone, but they can be especially harmful for kids. Read on to learn more about how to help kids deal with stress and gain some actionable strategies for using routines to combat stress and overwhelm.
Stress isn’t always a bad thing; in small doses, stress can have a positive effect of improving focus, inciting preparation, or even helping kids stay safe. But experiencing excessive stress can take an especially negative toll on kids by affecting the way they think, act, and feel in a way that wouldn’t as heavily impact a more developed adult, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. In fact, even small stressors can negatively act on children’s feelings of security and safety.
Therefore, for kids aged elementary to high school who are still growing and developing, it’s crucial to develop positive and productive ways to deal with stress.
If you are repeatedly observing any of the following behaviors, your child may be dealing with excessive stress:
Whether your child is struggling with the flexible structure of online school or dealing with stress in other areas of life, routines are a great way to create some structure and associated feelings of increased control and decreased stress. Routines are great because they can establish a sense of predictability, which can help kids feel safe and secure.
Wondering how to help kids with stress? Here are three ways to integrate routines to aid stressed-out students:
Creating a morning routine that your student completes before school is a great way to add in some structure and a sense of control to their day before school stressors even begin. A quick, reliable morning routine can help build confidence and positive expectations in your child at the start of each day. These morning routines for kids don’t have to be lengthy to be effective; they just have to be easily repeatable, and make your child feel good to do.
Consider including elements such as:
Especially if your student is enrolled in online or virtual school, it’s a great idea to come up with a “disconnect” routine that helps to switch their brainpower and energy away from school at the end of each day. Encourage them to come up with three things they do at the end of each school day to tell their brain they are done with school for the day. Some great ideas for this are:
One of the best times to prepare for the coming day is the night before. Help your child come up with a brief “night before” routine to help them feel calmer, more centered, and prepared for the next day. This routine can include typical “before bed” activities, such as brushing their teeth, taking a bath or shower, reading a book, but it can also include activities such as thinking about any special preparations for the next day, laying out their clothes and school items, or anything else that will help them feel set up for success the following morning.
In addition to integrating routine into your student’s life, here are some other tips for helping kids cope with stress:
Looking for more ways to help your student deal with stress in a healthy way? Check out our article, “How to Manage Stress in School at Every Grade Level.”