Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders

Childhood anxiety disorders can be traumatic in any child’s life. Parents are also affected when they see their child struggle with fears and many don’t know where to turn to get the answers they so desperately need and want. Fortunately, there are screens for childhood anxiety related disorders – some online and easy to access.

These screening methods can determine just how severe your child’s anxiety disorder might be and helps you to choose a path of treatment. You can find some screening methods online, and these might help you assess just how severe a child’s anxiety problem is.

The online screening – and some methods used by doctors – is a series of questions such as:

· When your child enters a stressful situation does he react by clinging, freezing or having a temper tantrum?
· Have you noticed a downturn in your child’s grades at school, refusal to go to school and avoidance of social activities?
· Have you noticed that your child has many unfounded fears about situations such as storms or performing in front of a group?

These types of screening devices are preliminary steps in determining if your child may be experiencing an anxiety disorder that should be treated professionally. There are also questions about how often your child may cry, feel sick, cling to you or obsess over thoughts such as you dying or becoming ill.

After screening for a childhood anxiety disorder, you and your physician should sit down and decide what the next step will be to help your child cope. It may be as simple as learning how to calm the child and teaching him a few effective strategies for dealing with his anxiety.

Another option is to have your child work with a professional therapist who is much more skilled in how to help children rid themselves of debilitating fears and feelings of anxiety that keep them from enjoying life to the fullest.

A professional therapist may suggest group therapy for your child, which is often effective when children realize that other kids have the same feelings as them. That realization can help them see that they’re not alone.

Although feelings of anxiety in a child isn’t life-threatening, prolonged symptoms could result in depression, obsessive compulsive disorder or other disorders that keep the child from enjoying all that life has to offer.

Approach a screen for childhood anxiety related disorder in a calm and helpful manner. In younger children, you may be able to help them look at the screening as a game, where they’re going to answer questions about how they feel. After the diagnosis, you can better determine the right course of action for your child.