If your child has test anxiety, they may experience nausea, shaking, clammy hands, and even memory blanks! Why does this happen? What can they do to overcome their stress?
Some people are anxious by nature, whereas others become anxious only in certain situations. Even though anxiety is often invisible to others, it’s a very real disorder that manifests itself in different ways:
- Upset stomach
- Clammy hands
- Shaking
- Sweating
- Memory blanks
- Etc.
Anxiety has a negative impact on learning because it brings up all sorts of distracting thoughts that have nothing to do with the task at hand. These thoughts can be overwhelming and prevent your child from retaining, processing, or recalling what they’ve learned. When they look at their exam sheet, their mind goes blank.
Some children get extremely anxious before a test because they’re afraid they’ll run out of time or that the questions will be very difficult. However, studies have shown that test anxiety has three main causes:
- Lack of confidence (the child is convinced that they won’t do well)
- Lack of preparation (the child knows they haven’t studied enough)
- Parental expectations (the child is afraid they’ll disappoint their parents)
Anxious children tend to blame themselves for their failures and attribute their successes to external factors. To help your child feel proud of their achievements and cope with disappointment, try to strengthen their self-esteem.
While school stress has many potential causes (the need to make new friends, the fear of being late for class, etc.), tests are often considered the most anxiety-provoking. To help your child avoid memory blanks caused by anxiety, you can show them different positive reinforcement strategies. Here are some your child can do during an exam:
- Take deep, slow breaths
- Focus on physical sensations
- Think about their strengths
- Think about what went well in previous exams
- Etc.
To help your child conquer their anxiety and dispel memory blanks, encourage them to use their inner voice. For example, they can self-soothe by reminding themselves of the following:
- Feeling a little anxious is normal
- They’re well prepared
- They’ll remember what they studied
- They have all the answers in their brain
- A bad grade isn’t the end of the world
- Etc.
Writing : The Alloprof Parents’ team