How can parents help children tackle examination stress?
Students tend to experience high-stress levels due to intense pressure to either meet their parents’ expectations or to qualify for the course that they want to pursue. While a little bit of stress might motivate them to excel, too much stress can cause difficulties with their health, sleep, and brain function. As a result, understanding how to manage stress during exams is a necessary skill for all. Here are 5 valuable and practical tips to help instill confidence in your child during examinations.
The power of communication and unwavering support
Open communication is one of the fundamental things that parents can do for their children to help them cope with stress. Allow your children to express their worries and share their feelings with you.
Before they go for an exam, be positive and encouraging. Avoid criticism and negativity. Your child will be pleased to know that you are available to listen to and support them. Most importantly, make sure that you don’t pile on the pressure on them to achieve certain results. Encourage them at all times to do their best without being overly tough on them.
Teach your children relaxation skills
Learning relaxation skills at a young age can help your child succeed later in life. Calming techniques, often known as relaxation techniques, help reduce the impact of stress on your child’s mind and body. These tactics are simple to learn and can help your child deal with stress at school, at home, or anyplace else in their surroundings. Deep breathing, meditation, yoga, aromatherapy, music, and art therapy are typical calming techniques.
Access to the right educational resources
Sometimes during the revision stage, your child may have academic queries that require expert guidance to gain clarity on certain subjects. It is imperative to have access to the right educational resources. There are tutoring platforms that help the students to resolve their queries. This is particularly useful if the child has last-minute exam nerves and needs counselling support or needs guidance on a certain topic.
Set a good example by managing your stress
Because our children pay close attention to what we say and do as parents, we must take time to deal with our own stress. The more we take care of ourselves as adults, the better we can assist our children in dealing with stress.
Start by eating enough amounts of necessary nutrients, doing at least 30 minutes of physical exercise a few days a week, and at least seven hours of sleep every night if you have certain
bad habits to break.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle
During exam season, it is all the more important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Children often spend a large portion of the day engrossed in revision, whilst forgetting to eat healthy and sleep well. Remember that a lack of sleep can exacerbate anxiousness in kids. As a result, it is critical to instill healthy behavior patterns in your child, especially when they are revising for hours at a stretch. Please encourage them to eat a healthy, balanced diet, and ensure that they get enough sleep, particularly in the run-up to the exams. For example, children require 9 to 11 hours of sleep every day. If your children get enough sleep, it will benefit both their physical and mental capacities.
In conclusion, we shouldn’t forget that exam stress is temporary. As parents, we should keep a close on eye on our child, whilst ensuring that they are equipped with the correct tools to handle exam anxiety. Ultimately, it will be your unwavering support and guidance that will help them get through these stressful days.