5 Simple but Effective Ways to Help Your Child with the Uncertain Year Ahead

While each family will select the school option that’s best for them and their children, there is one variable that all children will have in common heading into Fall, the uncertainty of what’s to come. 

Why is this important to address? Because biologically, uncertainty wreaks havoc in the brain of your child affecting both their academic learning as well as their emotional well-being and mental health.

Basically, uncertainly equals anxiety, and an anxious brain is a brain NOT ready to listen, learn, socialize, and focus throughout the day.

The difficulty human beings have handling uncertainty isn’t particularly surprising given the fact that security, safety, and predictability are all very basic human needs.

It’s not hard to see that humans value control above almost all other capacities. We admire others who are in control, and we congratulate ourselves as we learn to control our personal circumstances (or have the illusion that we can control them).

The effect of uncertainty on the human mind has been studied at length, and time after time the results are the same; humans would actually prefer knowing a negative consequence will happen to not knowing if the consequence will be positive or negative.’ Pretty crazy right?

The good news is, this same research also shows that while humans may be averse to uncertainty, we can learn to live within it, and your child can too.

How to Help your Child Cope with the Schoolyear Ahead

While you can’t prevent uncertainty in your child’s life, you can help to equip them with powerful tools that will allow them to cope and thrive within it.

Here are 5 simple ways you can help your child to feel more confident and prepared heading into the uncertain schoolyear ahead.

Pull them into the conversation

If you ask yourself how many important conversations you have about significant life events relating to your child’s life, how many of these conversations have you included your child in?

As your child gets older and has the ability to verbalize and think critically about the topic at hand, it’s time to show them the respect of asking their opinion.

This doesn’t mean they get the final say.  After all, you’re the leader of the family and ultimately decide what’s best.

It does mean that you’ll gain a better understanding of your child’s point of view on the matter and can then work to collaborate and gain mutual understanding of the final choice moving forward.

Check-in with them often

If there was ever a time to normalize emotions, now is it. The world is emotionally charged, providing the perfect opportunity to teach your child about different emotions and healthy ways they can cope with them.

This happens simply by asking your child often, “how are you doing today? How have you been feeling?”

Read books and offer visuals depicting different emotions and normalize and validate all of their feelings (even the ones that make you uncomfortable). Listen, listen, listen.

When your child has an outlet for their emotions not only will they feel more connected to you, they’ll be preventing anxiety and depression that can creep up when emotions are bottled up.