TEST
ANXIETY:
How to Slay the Dragon
By Jan Pierce, M.Ed.
It’s test day, and your little one has a whole list of
reasons why he can’t go to school. Tummy ache,
headache, too tired…and sadly, the real reason is he’s
afraid of the big, scary test he’s heard so much about.
According to the Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, children as young as five years of age can
feel apprehensive about taking exams. They worry
about bad grades, failure, disappointing teachers and
parents, wrong answers and more. The youngest may
worry about what the test looks like and what a correct
answer should consist of. Will she have to type on the
computer? Will he fail to understand the directions?
The entire world of school testing can seem like a scary
dragon ready to breathe fire on your son or daughter.
But before you scream in a frenzy of test-anxiety drama,
here are some common sense ways to deal with the
scary prospect of testing.
18 | F L A G L E R parent M A G A Z I N E
Recognizing the Problem
Test anxiety can cause children to offer vague symptoms
of illness to avoid the object of their fear. Fear of
failure is a powerful emotion and some children are
more prone to it than others. In extreme cases, test
anxiety can cause physical problems such as headache
and nausea, rapid heartbeat and emotional outbursts
of anger. The child feels overwhelmed and unable to
cope. He may have an inability to focus attention in the
testing situation or she may indulge in negative self-
talk, “I’m such a loser, I can’t do it.”
Long-term stress can cause symptoms over time.
Children may become afraid to stay alone, have
nightmares or have trouble getting to sleep. It’s a good
idea to document negative behaviors and take note
of testing times to see if there is a correlation. While
most children will experience a minimum of test anxiety
trauma, a few will need the help of a counselor or other
health professional to understand their feelings and
plan ways to cope.