Is Stress Aggravating Your Child's Learning Difficulties?

Stress is normally not thought of as a positive thing. Reducing stress is often considered good. However, stress often is present in areas we don't realize. Stress is also often a major contributor in a challenging situation, often more than we may be aware.

Stress triggers a reflex that causes the eyes to dart back in forth in order to take in everything that is going on in the environment. This is meant to be helpful and allow the person to be more aware of their surroundings. This is NOT helpful if the stressful situation is happening in school when focus is important. This reflex alone can be responsible for exaggerating learning difficulties by causing lack of focus and exhausting the brain.

Stress puts the body in survival mode. When the body is in survival mode the brain cannot develop freely as it is designed to develop. "Stressed out, survival oriented humans have less opportunity to develop nerve nets into the frontal lobe." (Smart Moves, Hannaford) This can intensify learning difficulties.

Stress is based upon how our brain perceives a situation. Any situation that our brain perceives as dangerous triggers the release of adrenalin. 

When a child learns to control what their brain perceives as a threat, they can reduce their stress levels. Because we know how detrimental stress is to physical, academic, and mental health, our classes have many elements that help students learn how to guide their thoughts and reduce stress.