Anxiety and worry can creep up on your kids when you least suspect it. Luckily thereās a solid stable of books that parents can turn to as they help their little ones better cope.
And books can be especially useful for kids when talking about conditions like anxiety, said Natasha Daniels, child therapist and author of How To Parent Your Anxious Toddler and Anxiety Sucks! A Teen Survival Guide.
āI do think kids learn through stories so either if a child has a hard time talking about it or if we want to normalize it, itās super helpful to say, āLook, itās in this book,āā she told HuffPost. āWhen we distance it and itās not about the child, itās just about this character in this book.ā
Casey Strenski, a registered associate marriage and family therapist, is the clinical program director of Los Angelesā Mindful Heart Kids, which offers therapeutic programs for children. She echoed Danielsā idea and described childrenās books as āa really good toolā to help kids learn about their feelings, especially when they can turn to the visuals for added context.
HuffPost put together a list of helpful titles, a mix of recommendations from therapists, counselors, psychologists and other mental health experts as well as some other notable books of the past few years.
Some are fictionalized accounts that highlight common worrisome scenarios like the first day of school, while others are workbooks that offer coping strategies for kids with anxiety. Check them out below.
