In Australia, one in seven children experience a mental health condition, and of those half experience anxiety. Parenting Anxious Kids was designed by author and award-winning parenting speaker Michael Grose and wellbeing expert Dr Jodi Richardson with this growing problem in mind. "It provides parents with not only a detailed understanding of what anxiety is and how it functions, but ongoing ways to respond and adapt," explains Grose.
The six-session course features extensive information and interviews with leading authorities from around the world, as well as practical tools to cope with anxiety day-to-day. "We’ve included a number of exercises parents and teachers can practise with kids both when they’re feeling anxious, and when they’re not." says Grose. The course focuses on mindfulness and breathing exercises, but also features tips on lifestyle changes, from nutrition to screen time. Each 30 to 40-minute session includes an interview from an expert, a section to ‘try now’, for immediate coping and calming techniques, ‘try later’, for overall lifestyle changes, and ‘more learning’, which leads to either an app, a TED talk, or other handy information.
Parenting Anxious Kids is designed to be completed at any pace and can be revisited as often as needed. The end goal of the course is to reassure parents and teachers that they can respond to anxiety in a safe and meaningful way. "We’re not trying to ‘fix’ anxiety, we’re teaching parents and their children ways to understand, adapt to and live with it. It’s about taking them from anxiousness to resilience," said Dr Richardson.
Parenting Anxious Kids is available for purchase online now from the Parenting Ideas website. ---
