With the start of the new school year, many kids may be relieved to return to in-person learning. But others may feel more anxious.
In fact, experts at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center anticipate that this transition may be especially challenging and anxiety-provoking.
Rachel Colon, LCSW, a social worker at the Center who treats young people ages 10-26, says that her case load has nearly doubled as adolescents seek help for anxiety and depression.
Rachel Colon, LCSW
“Young people are feeling a great deal of anxiety about returning to school,” she says. “They don’t know what they’re stepping into, who their friends are, and they’re nervous about the lack of predictability in an environment that has always been safe and provided routine.”
Ms. Colon offers some steps you can use to help your kids with the transition to in-person learning this school year:
- Have lots of conversations with your kids; keep the lines of communication open.
- Empathize with your children; let them know they are not alone if they feel anxious.
- Reach out to your child’s school to ask what steps are being taken to familiarize students with their surroundings.
- Look for signs of withdrawal, isolation, stomach aches, headaches, irritability. These can be signs of depression and/or anxiety.
- If your child is headed to a new campus, or stepping up from middle school to high school, offer to take a walk to school before the first day of school.
One potential new issue this year is that kids may feel they have lost touch with their group of friends, or that they don’t belong, and masks, while a critical safety tool, may make things more difficult.
“Many kids are telling me they don’t have a friend group anymore. They don’t know how their classmates will look,” she says. “With the potential requirement of masks, this will likely compound social anxiety because it’s hard to read expressions when a person is masked. Are they happy or sad? Are they smiling at me? Though masks are a crucial safety tool right now, kids really need simple cues—like a broad smile—to maintain social relationships.”
The Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center is a comprehensive, integrated health center that provides nonjudgmental and confidential care to young people ages 10-26 in New York City—all at no cost to patients, regardless of insurance or immigration status.