Back to school: how to help your child handle first-day-of-school anxiety

How do you help an anxious child with going back to school? The first step is spotting the signs early; the second is building predictability in the weeks before school starts — anxiety feeds on the unknown, and routine is the most effective antidote.

Signs that back-to-school is weighing on them

• Trouble sleeping or nightmares in the weeks before school starts.
• Repeated questions about "what's going to happen" on the first day.
• Irritability or crying for no clear reason as the date gets closer.
• Refusing to talk about school, when they used to talk about it freely.

5 routines for the two weeks before

1. 1Gradually shift back to school-year sleep schedules, one week ahead.
2. 2Visit the school or show photos, if it's a new place — it shrinks the "unknown."
3. 3Talk about what's going to go well, not just what could go wrong.
4. 4Prepare school supplies together with your child, making them an active part of the process.
5. 5Create a short, predictable goodbye routine for the first morning.

How a story can prepare a child for "the first day"

Reading a story before school starts, where your child themselves is the protagonist bravely living out a new adventure, helps build a positive association with the idea of "starting something unknown" — exactly what going back to school represents to them.