(Chelsea Update would like to thank Kristin Krurup-Joyce for the information in this column. Part one can be found here.)
Supportive Strategies
There are many strategies that parents and educators can use to help support students dealing with school refusal. These strategies work best when parents and schools partner together.
- Parents can set up regular evening and morning routines, reinforce their child’s positive behaviors (participation efforts), and ignore negative behaviors (crying, whining).
- The school can assist parents in bringing a reluctant or acting-out child into the school. In addition, school employees can work with parents to effectively respond to their child’s complaints about school, while clearly ensuring that the child attends school.
- The school can work with parents to monitor attendance, particularly for older students.
- The school can welcome the separation-anxious child when he or she arrives at school, and help the child become involved in getting organized for the day. School staff can give the child special jobs, such as handing out papers or collecting books, and praise and encourage the child. They can also provide comfort to younger students when they are upset.
- Both parents and the school can set up rewards for school attendance.
- School staff can assign a peer buddy at recess or lunch to help a socially anxious child feel more comfortable.
- The school may issue personal invitations to events and activities to help students feel welcome.
- Parents and the school can provide tutoring and other academic interventions and supports for students who have academic difficulties.
- School officials can show sensitivity to students with performance anxiety. Reduce the need for the student to give speeches or provide an alternate test-taking environment.
- The school can also provide a safe harbor with the counselor, school social worker, or school psychologist where the student can go when feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
