This is our first “trip out” in three and a half months.
Other than the occasional dog walk, and a few occasions visiting family members with the dog firmly by our side, we’ve been unable to leave the house for all this time.
I’ve worked with young people who have found school and educational settings incredibly anxiety provoking in the past, and living it on this side of the coin is a totally different experience.
Setting based anxiety is real, and it can impact all areas of a child’s life. In our case, it has twice resulted in a full withdrawal from the outside world, as well as a loss of skills and a deep fear of separation from our key people – the kind with the deep thudding heartbeat racing in your chest and where only pancakes and togetherness and home are the answer.
Educational settings raise a lot of challenges for kids, and for some these challenges are completely overwhelming, regardless of how supportive a setting is. The sensory overload, the social aspects, the level of expectation and demand (however low) and the separation from those people who know us and understand us best. Those who help the world understand us and who help us to understand the world.
Take it from an educator. Formal settings are not the answer for a significant subsection of our kids.
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Image Description: A photograph of a young child, looking into a circular, spherical, window at an aquarium. In front of him opens up an aquatic world of coral reef and tropical fish.
