Anxious children are unpredictable children. Children are unable to suppress their emotions, and often their emotions are responsible for their actions - for good and for bad behavior. Children are capable of anger, happiness, depression and the full range of human emotions - just like adults. And, anxiety is no exception, as an anxious child will display those anxious feelings in a variety of ways. And, it’s up to the parents to learn to read the child’s behavior, so that any bad behavior can be corrected.

Learn To Manage Behavior With Role Playing
Children should learn to manage their behavior in a positive, healthy way. Role playing with a parent can go a long way towards helping an anxious child learn to deal with his or her emotions.

A great example to consider would be to invent a situation that, in real life, would cause the child to become anxious. Go through each step of this process with the child, and discuss the child’s reactions, then gently mention (and reinforce) appropriate responses to the situation. Use this same process to cover similar situations - even using examples from other children, or situations. Repeat the process, as this repetition will reinforce your good examples for the child and, eventually, the child will realize (and exhibit) the learned responses to anxiety-inducing real-life situations. A parent can make this learning fun - think of ways these examples and scenarios can be made into a game. Give appropriate rewards for the right answers and behaviors.

Give The Child A Mechanism To Deal With Emotions
An anxious child needs to realize that when he or she experiences anxiety, the emotion is easily identified to the child, and that negative behaviors can be dealt with in a positive way. The anxious child can work with the anxious feelings by positive self-talk, with the ultimate realization that he or she can work with any situation without the automatic bad behavior that used to accompany such anxious feelings.

Reward The Good Behavior - Always
Always reward any positive behavior that you see the anxious child portray - even the smallest of signs that he or she is genuinely trying to act properly. Follow through with a reward and an explanation of why even though the child lapsed into bad behavior - so long as you see even a sliver of hope that the child is trying, though not fully successful. Positive reinforcement of small steps can have big payoffs.

Of course, parents must realize that the anxious child will not magically change behaviors in a day, a week - or even a month. The learned, appropriate behaviors will most likely be learned in steps, and if the parent is rewarding accordingly, then these small steps will lead to even bigger leaps as time goes by.