Anxiety and Executive Function

My child is anxious and overwhelmed by schoolwork. Can executive function coaching help?

Written by Jess Holman, Instructor

At Engaging Minds, we provide tailored student learning programs to help students progress towards their personal and academic goals. A common theme that is observed in our nationwide virtual academic executive function coaching program is that students feel anxious and overwhelmed as they navigate academic and extracurricular activities. Our academic EF coaching program is designed to support students with anxiety, as our team works in partnership with students and their families to promote wellness, enhance academic performance, and empower students with self advocacy skills.

How Common is Anxiety?

Anxiety is relatively common among teens and children; however, there is an important distinction between a clinically significant level of anxiety and developmentally appropriate distress. Research from the CDC between 2016 and 2019 reports 9.4% of children aged 3-17 were living with diagnosed anxiety¹. Researchers identified that rates of anxiety are higher in adolescents aged 13-18; studies estimate that 31.9% of adolescents have an anxiety disorder². The chart below highlights that anxiety is the most-commonly reported mental health challenge by U.S. youth.

Contributing Factors

It is essential to highlight that remote learning has significantly increased the rate of anxiety, persistent worries, and distress among children, adolescents, and young adults in the United States³. For children with learning disabilities, remote learning presented a major change to the specialized services available to them in a classroom, which in turn escalated the level of anxiety and worry for many students. Other contributing factors to the rise in anxiety include the pervasiveness of social media, stressful world events and also cultural pressures to succeed⁴.

What does anxiety look like?

Anxiety is among the most common mental health challenges faced by children and teenagers, but it can be hard for parents and children to tell what is or is not anxiety. There are many shared worries among children and teenagers; however, anxiety often changes over a person’s lifespan. Children most often worry about external things – such as the dark, monsters, or something bad happening to someone they love. Teenagers most often worry about themselves – their performance, their bodies, and how they are perceived by others. These developmental differences in anxiety symptoms are important to keep in mind when parents and caregivers are concerned about their child experiencing anxiety.

In children, the following behaviors are commonly associated with anxiety⁵:

• Worrying to a degree that disrupts a child’s day to day life – some kids are anxious about a particular thing while others are worried in general
• Exhibiting physical symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, sweating, and a racing heart
• Avoiding experiences that make them anxious, such as tests or social situations
• Difficulty concentrating on tasks and assignments
• Having trouble sleeping
• Acting disruptive or aggressive because of uncomfortable feelings
• Clinging to parents or caregivers or needing significant reassurance
• Being hard on themselves and/or saying mean things about themselves

In teens, the following behaviors are commonly associated with anxiety⁶:

• Difficulty concentrating on tasks and assignments
• Demonstrating sensitivity to criticism
• Reporting physical symptoms such as headaches or stomach aches
• Withdrawing from social activities
• Seeking reassurance repeatedly
• Having trouble sleeping or staying asleep
• Experimenting with or using substances
• Receiving lower grades or refusing to participate in school

If you are concerned that your child might have some of these symptoms, reach out to your pediatrician or a clinician for further evaluation. Anxiety disorders must be diagnosed by a clinician, and can be managed effectively with the right combination of support, strategies, and tools.

Stress vs Anxiety

Although they are sometimes used interchangeably, it’s important to highlight the differences between stress and anxiety. While stress and anxiety are both emotional responses to challenging experiences, they are fundamentally different. Stress is typically caused by a short-term trigger, while anxiety is defined by persistent, excessive worries that don’t go away even in the absence of a stressor⁷.

A helpful way of conceptualizing the difference between stress and anxiety is reflected in the Yerkes-Dodson law⁸. The graph below represents the relationship between performance and stress as a person completes a task.

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It is important to emphasize that the shape of the bell curve shifts based on the complexity and familiarity of the task. The Yerkes-Dodson law can help conceptualize what a “healthy” amount of stress is. On one extreme, too little stress can cause boredom and disengagement. On the other extreme, too much stress can cause significant anxiety, burnout, and overwhelm.

At Engaging Minds, we provide educational support to help students stay in the ‘growth and learning zone’ and reach their personal best academic performance. We understand that there isn’t a one size fits all approach to supporting students with anxiety; our executive function coaching program provides students with skills and strategies that are tailored to their learning styles and specific to their presentation of anxiety, whether that be generalized anxiety, test-taking anxiety or otherwise.

Generalized Anxiety

A generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis typically means that a child presents with a wide variety of worries about everyday things. Students who struggle with generalized anxiety may have trouble initiating tasks or redo tasks in an effort to achieve a perfect result or to exert control over academic work¹⁰. Some strategies we help students develop to support this profile include:

• Developing self-advocacy skills needed both to communicate electronically and in-person
• Prioritizing items via an agenda to help build and work through a focused to-do list
• Using a calendar tool to help integrate academics and extracurriculars, while also allocating time for self-care and socialization
• Incorporating physical organization strategies to create and maintain an organized workspace
• Using sensory items to promote productivity, such as fidgets, stress balls, etc.
• Practicing setting SMART goals
• Enabling follow-through with the use of both digital and physical reminder tools

Anxiety and Perfectionism

Students with perfectionistic tendencies who experience anxiety are often challenged by practicing flexibility. Reducing anxiety and strengthening executive functioning skills go hand-in-hand. Executive function coaches can empower perfectionists to find their ‘zone of optimal performance,’ which is likely not when they are striving for perfectionism¹¹. Research emphasizes that people with perfectionism might achieve the same – or better – results when they approach activities in a less pressurized manner. Flexibility may include trying a new way to approach a task, moving from one activity to another, or accepting feedback and pivoting to a new direction. Perfectionists may view needing to change their approach as a reflection that their first attempt was a failure and a waste of time. Executive function coaching helps students to identify tools, skills, and strategies to set reasonable goals for themselves and build transition skills. Some of the strategies we use with students at Engaging Minds to mitigate perfectionist tendencies include:

• Breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable steps
• Taking breaks and working in short, concentrated bursts
• Creating a “getting unstuck” checklist to facilitate self-help when problem-solving
• Taking the time to identify and celebrate successes
• Practicing giving and receiving feedback
• Learning to preview tasks and make approximate time estimates for how much time each step might take
• Using verbal articulation and/or voice to text strategies to initiate tasks concretely

If you are interested in learning more about managing perfectionism, explore our blog post “Embracing Imperfection: Growth Mindset and Executive Function Skills are Key to Managing Perfectionism.”

Test Anxiety

At Engaging Minds, we often work with students whose anxiety about assessments interferes with their ability to show what they know on quizzes, tests, and exams. Executive function coaches empower students with resources, skills, and strategies to manage test anxiety; examples of skills and strategies for managing test anxiety include¹²:

• Reviewing the test format in advance to identify what topics will be covered and what test format will be used
• Developing study plans with students to identify when, where, and how to actively study in advance of an assessment
• Creating a test-taking strategies checklist that details strategies for responding to various testing formats (i.e. multiple choice, in-class essay, true / false, etc.)
• Practicing self-advocacy strategies, such as using accommodations available to the student or asking clarifying questions to a teacher when confused during an assessment
• Building a healthy bedtime routine to ensure students are rested on test days
• Practicing grounding or relaxation techniques to stay calm and confident throughout the assessment period

Executive Function Coaching to Build Intrinsic Motivation

There is no one size fits all solution to managing anxiety, but executive function coaching is a profoundly impactful educational support for strengthening student self-monitoring and enhancing student motivation. At Engaging Minds, we believe that a student’s motivation and confidence in their abilities are some of the most important factors in their long-term academic success.

Engaging Minds Executive Function Coaches guide students to identify and address the executive function areas that the student finds most difficult. Students with anxiety are often challenged by an inner dialogue that is overly-critical and harshly judgemental. At Engaging Minds, we understand that anxiety and academic failures can make a negative inner dialogue louder as students move through their educational journey. While their inner dialogue may tell students that their challenges are their fault, Executive Function Coaches work with students to identify their relative strengths and challenges; instructors introduce strategies and tools that build upon their relative strengths and address their relative weaknesses. Examples of skills and strategies for building self-belief and motivation with executive function coaching include:

• Naming executive function skills in session
• Providing choice and control over learning strategies
• Building self-advocacy skills
• Setting reasonable goals
• Working collaboratively
• Using reflective questioning to analyze core challenges
• Implementing scaffolds to help follow through

Our coaching programs help students challenge an overly-harsh and judgemental inner dialogue by finding successes early and often. Our programs are built on the foundational belief that intrinsically motivated students achieve their greatest potential. Our executive function coaches build strong and trusting relationships with students and incorporate principles of intrinsic motivation as part of the learning process.

How can executive function coaching help students with anxiety?

When students who have anxiety work with an executive function coach, they build skills and strategies to manage their anxiety and strengthen their academic performance. At Engaging Minds, instructors help students reflect on their relative strengths and challenges and share responsibility in prioritizing what skills they need to better-manage their day-to-day tasks and long-term commitments. Engaging Minds academic coaching programs equip students with homework management techniques, long-term assignment strategies, active study skills, confidence and motivation, and self-regulation. In gaining control over their academics, students feel empowered and confident, which helps significantly lower stress and anxiety levels and gives students the chance to showcase their true potential.

Contact Our Executive Function Coaches for More Information on EF Coaching and Anxiety

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¹Center for Disease Control And Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (2023, March 8). Anxiety and depression in children: Get the facts. Children’s Mental Health. https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth/features/anxiety-depression-children.html#:~:text=9.4%25%20of%20children%20aged%203,diagnosed%20depression%20in%202016%2D2019
²National Institute of Mental Health. Any Anxiety Disorder. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder
³ Fortuna, L. R., Brown, I. C., Lewis Woods, G. G., & Porche, M. V. (2023). The Impact of COVID-19 on Anxiety Disorders in Youth: Coping with Stress, Worry, and Recovering from a Pandemic. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America, 32(3), 531–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2023.02.002
⁴ McCarthy, C. (2019, November 20). Anxiety in teens is rising: what’s going on?. American Academy of Pediatrics. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/emotional-problems/Pages/Anxiety-Disorders.aspx
⁵ Berman, G. (2024, August 7). What are the signs of anxiety? How to recognize anxiety in kids. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/what-are-the-signs-of-anxiety/
⁶ Miller, C. (2023, January 5). How anxiety affects teenagers: signs of anxiety in adolescents and how they’re different from anxious children. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/signs-of-anxiety-in-teenagers/
⁷ American Psychological Association. (2022, February 14). What’s the difference between stress and anxiety? https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/anxiety-difference
⁸ Yerkes, R. M., & Dodson, J. D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459-482
⁹ Image Citation: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-yerkes-dodson-law-game-changer-facilitating-culture-borisov
¹⁰ American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://www.mredscircleoftrust.com/storage/app/media/DSM%205%20TR.pdf
¹¹American Psychological Association (2018, April 19). Zone of Optimal Functioning. APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/zone-of-optimal-functioning
¹² Sawchuck, C. (2024, May 14). Text anxiety: can it be treated? Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/generalized-anxiety-disorder/expert-answers/test-anxiety/faq-20058195