When Worrying Takes Over: Helping Kids Overcome Anxiety Build Resilience

Recorded Webinar
Instructor: Sharon Saline, Psy.D.
CEs/Contact Hours: 2 
Level: Intermediate
Target Audience: Social workers and other social service providers.
Course Delivery Method and Format: Recorded webinar, self study. All courses are hosted on SmithOnline. Login information will be emailed immediately after registration to the email address entered during registration.
System Requirements: Attendees will need access to a computer with internet and the capability to play recorded videos.

Date of original webinar: April 1, 2024

Living in a world that’s increasingly unpredictable, today’s children and teens are more anxious than ever before. For students who are neurodivergent thinkers—those with ADHD, learning disabilities or twice exceptionality (2E), managing anxiety in conjunction with executive functioning deficits can seem especially daunting. Sharon Saline, veteran psychologist and author of What Your ADHD Child Wishes you Knew: Working Together to Empower Kids for Success in School and Life and The ADHD Solution Card Deck discusses the grip of anxiety and what professionals (and parents) can do to reduce students' worries.

After reviewing the physiology and psychology of anxiety, she will show participants how to help kids change their relationship to worry and avoid the pitfalls of negative thinking. Instead of reassurance and rationalization, she will share techniques for separating the person from the anxiety, talking to the worry itself and creating effective responses to ‘what ifs’. She also addresses how anxiety affects motivation, productivity and confidence and how participants can assist clients in coping with and lowering stress. Saline offers tools for teaching children and teens how to realistically evaluate situations, tolerate uncertainty and apply effective coping skills to reduce social anxiety as well. Finally, how to transform worry and insecurity into curiosity and confidence will be explored.

Registration Fee and Deadline:

$45 (one time registration fee of $5) | Ongoing

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how anxiety works in the brain and body
2. Identify how to reduce patterns of negative thinking in all types of learners
3. Explain how to externalize anxiety and reduce its influence on daily tasks, productivity and self-concept
4. Discover practical tools for dealing with the specific worries related to school, friends and home
5. Develop areas of resilience in social and educational contexts

Outline:

• Introduction and overview
• Definition of anxiety
• How anxiety works in the brain and body
• Difference between nervousness, worry, anxiety and stress
• Special considerations for neurodivergent youth
• Overview of pressure on today’s youth that fosters anxiety
• Q & A
• Explanation of role of anxiety on executive functioning skills including motivation and focus
• Techniques for improving cognitive and behavioral skills;
  Identifying patterns of negative thinking
• Clinical interventions related to reducing patterns of negative thinking
• Q & A
• Understanding social anxiety and
• Tools for lower social anxiety in children and teens
• Developing areas of resilience; fostering growth mindsets.
• Q & A

Instructor Biography: