From Reading and Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan & Dr. Howard Margolis
How to Reduce Anxiety: Yours and Your Child’s—Part II
In late March, we described three ways you can use relaxation strategies to reduce anxiety—yours and your child’s. We described meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, and diaphragmatic breathing. And we quoted the research from 1990. Here’s a more recent statistical analysis:
The [literature shows] consistent and significant efficacy of relaxation training in reducing anxiety. (Manzoni et al., 2008, p. 9 of 12) Read more...
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From Reading and Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan & Dr. Howard Margolis
How to Reduce Anxiety: Yours and Your Child’s
Many parents of children with disabilities worry—constantly. They fear the future, they feel extremely anxious—constantly. So do their children. Often, extreme, constant anxiety—fear of the future, fear that “I can’t handle it” and the results will be awful— creates physical and emotional distress. Physically, it can cause or aggravate endrocrine, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular problems (Hanson & Mendius, 2009). Emotionally, it can cause or aggravate depression as well as sleep, attention, learning, social, and behavioral problems. Read more...
anxiety, breathing, children with disabilities, diaphragm breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, Dyslexia, dyslexic, dyslexics, intervention, Learning Disabilities, learning disability, meditation, muscle relaxation, Parenting, progressive muscle relaxation, Reading Disabilities, reading disability, reading intervention, reading problem, reading problems, relaxation, relaxation training, self-efficacy, self-esteem, slow breathing, strengthening resiliency, stress, struggling reader, Struggling Readers
The Question
Recently, a tutor of a struggling reader sent us this question: “Do you have any advice on things to say to calm my student down? Sometimes my student gets in a loop of thinking. He cries and says he hates this tutoring, he can do harder stuff than this, his anger and sadness causes him to be in a place where he cannot learn. I plan to have a variety of activities and books available to have an option when one activity isn’t working. Two sessions ago I stopped the session, because my student could not calm down. We made an agreement that day to stop using the books he didn’t like. I continued the session yesterday, but I’m not sure how much he learned. I didn’t want him to think I’m going to give up.” Read more...
anxiety, diaphragmatic breathing, Dyslexia, dyslexic, dyslexics, exercise, frustration, frustration level, intervention, Learning Disabilities, learning disability, Parenting, progressive muscle relaxation, Reading Disabilities, reading disability, reading intervention, reading levels, Reading Materials, reading problem, reading problems, reading remediation, relaxation, relaxation training, remedial reading, remediation, resilience, Resiliency, self-efficacy, self-esteem, strengthening resiliency, stress, struggling reader, Struggling Readers, visual imagery
We all worry and get angry, but we don’t realize how much these emotions affect us. Even relatively minor concerns can compete for our attention, occupy our thoughts, and distract us from our purpose.
For most of us, the worry and anger is not intense. It’s short lived. But many children with reading disabilities and other learning disabilities don’t get over it. The intensity increases. This, in turn, adds to the difficulties they have attending, concentrating, and remembering. They waste valuable time and energy on non-productive thoughts, impeding their learning. Read more...
anger, anxiety, depression, Dyslexia, dyslexic, dyslexics, emotional distress, emotional reactions, emotions, frustration, frustration level, homework, intervention, Learning Disabilities, learning disability, Parenting, Reading Disabilities, reading disability, reading intervention, reading levels, Reading Materials, reading problem, reading problems, reading remediation, remedial reading, remediation, resilience, Resiliency, sadness, self-efficacy, self-esteem, strengthening resiliency, struggling reader, Struggling Readers, study skills
