Dr. Robert Needlman
Specialist in pediatric behavior and development.
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 Ask Dr. Needlman
Fear of Exams in an Eight-Year-Old | | | QUESTION | | | Dear Dr. Needlman,
Hi! I am trying to help my son deal with the fear of exams. He is eight years old and bright, but this fear blocks him in many ways. Thanks.— Concerned Mom | | | ANSWER |
April 6, 2001 | | | Dear Concerned Mom,
Fear of exams is actually a very common problem among school-age children. First, it's a good idea to make certain that the fear is not brought on by a learning problem or disability. For example, some children do very poorly on exams because they read slowly or with great difficulty. They can do the regular homework well because they work very hard and are bright. But in a timed test situation, they can't keep up. One hint of this is a child who answers the first half of the test questions correctly, but doesn't get to the second half of the questions at all (and thus earns a very low score). To make sure there is no learning disability, see Getting a Learning Problems Assessment.
Test-taking anxiety is often easy to deal with using relaxation and mental imagery techniques. With a little coaching, most children quickly learn to think pleasant, restful thoughts and enjoy the feeling of their bodies relaxing. They can then give themselves instructions to feel calm and relaxed during tests. Somehow, the body remembers, and they do in fact feel calmer during tests. Many child psychologists and pediatricians are skilled in teaching children relaxation. Some call this process self hypnosis, but I think that makes it sound more mysterious than it really is.
I remember one girl with sickle cell disease. I taught her to do relaxation-mental-imagery for her pain problem. The pain got much more manageable. But what really pleased her was that she figured out (on her own) that she could use the same technique to lower her test-taking anxiety. She was delighted when her test scores jumped up!— by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. |
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