Anxiety is a common challenge for students, whether they’re worrying about presenting a book report, facing a big test, or wondering about their future. For those working with gifted and talented students, anxiety can sometimes feel even more overwhelming, as their high intellectual abilities often outpace their emotional growth. As educators and parents, finding tools to help students cope with anxiety and manage their worries can be incredibly challenging. Read on to learn practical, concrete ways to help students manage their worries, especially when their minds are racing.
Professional Development Book Study: Why Smart Kids Worry by Allison Edwards
I recently participated in a book study for professional development with my school. The book we read, Why Smart Kids Worry by Allison Edwards totally clicked in my mind! I have been recommending it left and right with friends and parents ever since finishing the first few chapters. #whysmartkidsworry
Because I work with many anxious students, and sometimes struggle with my own brain spinning out of control, I loved learning about the practical tools that can help us when we're thinking irrationally. Until a student has returned to a rational mindset, our efforts to convey logic or enforce consequences will be futile. The worry tools can guide students back toward this rational mindset and help them make sense of what happens in their brains.
I've always been fascinated by the development of gifted children. Because they often grow asynchronously, their emotional intelligence can be years behind their academic intelligence. This is why a five-year-old may be able to converse with an adult on the process of photosynthesis and then break out in a total meltdown if they don't get candy in the checkout line. #socialemotionallearning
If you choose to read this book, too, I hope you'll have as many "lightbulb" moments as I did! I was amazed at how often personal examples would pop into my head as I turned the pages. Just yesterday, I interacted with a student who was feeling anxious and his behaviors matched up perfectly with something I read in the book!
Final Project: Worry Tools Activities
For my final project in this class, I created concrete activities to use with my students. I'm hoping these slides and worksheets will help them fully implement their favorite tools. This Worry Tools Mini-Lessons resource is designed to support students in gaining emotional intelligence and learning essential coping strategies to manage their anxieties. Through simple, easy-to-understand tools, these lessons give students ways to recognize their feelings and gain control over them.
7 Worry Tools to Teach to Your Students
Just like adults find some strategies for managing stress to be more useful than others, students will likely favor some worry tools over others. These mini-lessons cover a variety of tools so students can choose their favorite coping mechanisms:
My Five Questions: A tool to help students reframe their thoughts by answering specific questions about their worries.
I Did It!: A strategy for recognizing and celebrating personal successes to shift focus away from anxiety.
Good, Bad, and In Between: A tool to help students evaluate their worries from different perspectives, distinguishing between what is truly negative and what is manageable. This tool helps children step away from "all or nothing" thinking and recognize that there is lots of gray area in between.
Worry Walton: A creative character-driven strategy to help students externalize their worries and better understand them. This tool makes worries less overwhelming for young children.
What’s on the Menu?: A method to help students recognize when they are loading up too much on their mental and emotional plate.
Check Your Feelings: A self-checking tool to help students identify and label their emotions, a key step in managing anxiety.
Worry Expert: A fun way for students to role-play and practice being "experts" in managing worry.
My Favorite Worry Tool
I especially loved the "Brain Plate" tool and created a page to help students identify what's on their menu for the week. In this activity, students draw a picture of every food they will eat in the coming week - including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks! It's easy to understand that if you eat all of these foods in one sitting, you will certainly feel sick. The same is true with our brains. If you try to load up all of your activities and responsibilities for the entire week into one day, your worry load will be so consuming you will make your brain sick!
How to Teach Worry Tools
There are many ways to incorporate these tools into your classroom or at home:
Monthly Focus: Introduce a new worry tool each month and reinforce it whenever anxious situations arise. This helps students build familiarity and comfort with different strategies.
Small Group Interventions: For students who struggle with managing their worries, consider forming a weekly intervention group. This focused time can help students deepen their emotional intelligence and learn how to apply these strategies in real-life situations.
Morning Meeting Routine: Add these lessons to your morning meeting to create a consistent space where social-emotional learning can thrive in your classroom. #morningmeeting
Hear From Educators Like You!
⭐️ "I teach a gifted and talented self-contained class. This resource has given my students realistic ways to cope with their daily worries. I am seeing a great improvement in several of my students who practice using their favorite tool on a regular basis."
⭐️ “I’m always looking for ways to help my anxious students. These tools are easy to use and the included resources are perfect for teaching small groups or the whole class.”
⭐️ “I love Allison Edward’s book and these slides and worksheets helped me put the tools to work!”
Find Answers to Your Questions:
✋ Are these materials print or digital?
Both! Present the PowerPoint slides to teach students about the tools. Then, give students a worksheet to practice using the tools. You may even want to compile the worksheets in a small folder or binder for students to reference regularly.
✋ How long does it take to teach one worry tool?
Each mini-lesson may range from 10 minutes to 30 minutes depending on the size of your group and the length of your discussions.
✋ Do I have to teach every tool?
No. Share the resources you find most helpful. Different students may relate better to certain tools. Continue experimenting until students find better ways to manage their anxiety.
✋ How can this resource help my gifted and talented students?
Oftentimes, gifted students develop asynchronously. Their IQ may be much higher than their EQ (emotional intelligence). Because of this, it can be helpful to teach social-emotional skills in concrete ways. Introducing gifted students to these worry tools can help them experiment with new ways to manage their anxiety.