Identifying Situations Which May Lead to Anxiety

It is important to get input from children, if possible, regarding which situations may cause them to feel anxious. Children can have useful insights into their feelings which can help caregivers to recognise which situations are likely to be stressful.

One way of obtaining information from children is by using a pocket activity which involves the child rating certain situations on a scale of 1 to 5, where ‘1’ is a situation which causes no difficulty for the child and ‘5’ is a situation which could lead to an explosion.

See example of visual below:

The child is given cards with situations written on them. These could include things such as ‘Lunch time,’ ‘Going shopping with mum,’ or ‘Making a mistake.’ The situations used should be ones which the child experiences regularly and which the adult believes have the potential to cause stress.

The child is taught to rate these situations in terms of how they make them feel by placing the situation cards in pockets one to five accordingly. For example, the child might feel that ‘playing with friends’ will cause them very little anxiety and rate this as a ‘1’, whereas if the ‘school fire alarm goes off,’ this could cause them to feel extremely anxious which they may rate as a ‘5.’

The result allows caregivers to see which situations are relatively easy for the child and which may be stressful. This helps to clarify where extra supports may be needed and allows the parent/teacher to be prepared by having these supports in place. For additional resource information, please click on the link below.

To lsiten to Karri Dunn-Buron discuss the 5 point scale, please click on the video below.