TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As the start of the new school year approaches, there's more to do than buy a fresh backpack and notebook. In the days before school begins, health experts encourage students to readjust their sleep schedules, eat healthy meals and prepare for any school anxiety.
Brandy Baker, a licensed clinical psychologist at Intuition Wellness Center, sees many children who are nervous to head back to the classroom, especially in light of the recent school shootings.
"The idea of coming back to school is anxiety provoking even for the parents too,” she said. "And I don’t just mean gun violence, but I mean every day something "bad" or negative could happen in a child’s life.”
According to a Pew Research study, anxiety and depression associated with school is one of the top problems for young people. But sometimes — especially for young children — it's difficult to identify the anxiety, Baker said.
"I think one of the tricky parts as a parent or teacher or someone working with a child is to recognize is what we are actually seeing is anxiety because it comes out in behaviors," she said. "Children often don’t have the words to say ‘I'm feeling anxious'."
One of the best ways to help this anxiety is to get the right amount of sleep, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Desert Pediatrics Dr. Tien Nguyen said sleep impacts everything in school.
"Studies have shown that sleep helps your child behave well at school and have the capacity to focus," she said. "In a 24 hour period, preschoolers need 10-13 hours of sleep.”
She said the best way to readjust the sleep schedule is to eliminate the screen time and work together as a household to sleep the correct amount of hours.
"Eliminating the screen time at least an hour before bed," Nguyen said. "We don’t recommend a TV in the room."
Baker said diet also impacts anxiety levels, especially in school.
"We know now that our gut health and microbiome is critical to somebody's well being," she said. "If there's an imbalance to the flora in there it can really impact mood. So that's the thing, we have to be consistent with eating."
Nguyen recommends eliminating many sugary foods, eating enough protein and drinking enough water before heading back to school. But when the anxiety begins to set in, there are ways to cope.
"Deep breathing really does help," Baker said. "Practicing deep breathing when someone isn't in an anxious state is the pre-curser to using it in anxiety."
Deep breathing techniques — breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth — help lower blood pressure and heart rate, which decreases the amount of the stress hormone cortisol.
"To get into nature and get the kids up early and outside because that sunshine is just so important," she said. "Just being in nature in general and breathing in the desert can be really helpful.”
She said 13 years ago when Intuition Wellness opened, it was mostly parents bringing their kids. But now, it's often the kids asking if they can seek therapy.
"Therapy isn’t the end all be all but I think there is other things that can be helpful too," she said. "Some kids maybe they don’t want to go to a therapist, maybe something else like rock climbing could be helpful."
Baker said it's important to listen to what's best for the child.
"I would encourage parents to not give up," she said. "If your child comes to you and says 'I need to talk to somebody', I would encourage parents if they have the means to do that — there are a lot of low cost services as well — then go for it."
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