Oftentimes, when our kids feel anxious, we go immediately to the rescue. We would immediately go to them and comfort. But this turns out to be counterproductive for the children, says Yale School of Medicine psychologist Eli Lebowitz.
"When you provide a lot of accommodation, the unspoken message is, 'You can't do this, so I'm going to help you,' " he says.
Instead of letting them face their fears and guiding them towards the road of independence, we make them dependent on us, and we unintentionally make their anxiety worse. And so, this kind of method works bad for the kids. Asking the children to change their behavior won’t work either. Enter Lebowitz, who shows us a better way — a new therapy.
The program was part of a Yale University study that treated children's anxiety by teaching their parents new ways of responding to it.
How should the parents respond then? Find out in the article.
(Image Credit: Christopher Cappoziello for NPR)