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Tears, tantrums and tummy aches: all of these symptoms can accompany the common childhood experience of performance anxiety, a familiar topic for Bobcaygeon, Ont., mom Michelle Garrett.* When her son Jesse* was assigned his first class speech in grade three, it created a lot of tension in their home.
?When he has to do something in front of others, he shuts down. He cried and refused to do the work until his teacher prompted him at school,? Garrett says. Jesse was last to present on speech day, and as soon as he made it to the front of the class, he froze and began to cry. I know, because I was his teacher.
Often called ?stage fright,? performance anxiety can rear its head in a variety of locations other than formal recitals or concerts, including the sports field and the classroom. This anxiety can appear at an early age, as Toronto mom Shelley Anderson* knows. Though her three-year-old daughter loves to dance, Anderson struggles each week to get her to participate in ballet class. ?She?ll beg us to pick her up, or fall to the ground and have a tantrum rather than join in,? says Anderson. Anxiety can paralyze older children as well?when my dad was a high school hockey coach, he had a player who threw up before every single game?and can last well into adulthood.
According to Vancouver child psychologist Carla Fry, who specializes in child and adolescent anxiety, some nervousness before performing is extremely common in children. My own daughters, who are ...