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As schools open their doors across the province, Fraser Health is encouraging parents to support students as they adjust to the school year and the anxiety that it can bring.<\/p>\n
Saktaar Sodhi is entering Grade 12, and that brings a whole new set of anxieties as schools open Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Grade 12 students, they\u2019re wondering how to apply to universities right now,” she said.<\/p>\n
The province reported in 2020 that only about 51 per cent of high school graduates transitioned into post-secondary education within one year. Sodhi hopes to become a pharmacist and study at Simon Fraser University of the University of British Columbia next year.<\/p>\n
In a release, Nelam Sall, with Fraser Health, said parents can start by asking their children what worries them and “really listening to what they have to say.”<\/p>\n
“We can\u2019t take away every uncomfortable feeling, but we can help children learn that they can cope with them,” he added.<\/p>\n
Around this time of year, anxiety is common, according to clinical counsellor Amrita Kaur Sandhu.<\/p>\n
She explained that in the summertime, kids enjoy a period of predictability, on their terms. When fall rolls back around, school-aged children start to anticipate learning from new teachers, being in new classrooms with new people and adjusting to different routines.<\/p>\n
Providing support<\/p>\n
The best solution at home, Sandhu noted, is to have an open conversation between parents and children.<\/p>\n
“Talking about it, naming it, helping support the child and soothe their feelings that they might be having is giving them their best shot,” explained Sandhu.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s easier said than done.”<\/p>\n
Sandhu also said some of the most easily implemented strategies include getting back into a normal sleep routine, allowing kids to relax after school and recognizing that they may come home with emotions after holding them back throughout the day.<\/p>\n
Sodhi said some students can feel nervous about fitting in. She explained that people who wear brand-name clothes to school are often more socially included. <\/p>\n
“If you don\u2019t start off the day with the newest shoes you have or the newest clothes, they\u2019re going to have a weird vibe,” said Sodhi.<\/p>\n
But once high school students mature around Grade 10, that focus on status can shift to “[who] you are as a person.”<\/p>\n
“They will have a rough start, I know, but it will not be hard for them to make friends at school.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":["post-884480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}