Please Explain Anxiety to Me!: Simple Biology and Solutions for Children and Parents, 2nd Edition (Growing with Love)

Five year old was dealing with anxiety and the waterfall of consequences that came from his fears. This book at bedtime along with some others, lots of talking, and lots of support and love have helped him move past the hardest part. We read slowly and took lots of breaks to talk and explain. Took many days to get through - well worth the patience. I’m a mom and a therapist and I recommend this book to clients and friends.

Do you want to know how to help your children when they get anxiety? Parents can remain calm with the help of this book as it provide families with a description of anxiety that children can understand and suggestions that parents can use when addressing their children’s worries. I remember being a child under the age of five and getting my own tonsils out and adenoids out. The author wants to help other parents by writing this book for kids who have too much anxiety and want to get rid of some of it. Signs of anxiety that are common involve emotions and showing signs of a problem include; stomach aches, tics, eating too little or too much, wants to sleep with a parent, inattentiveness in school, separation issues, self-imposed isolation, repetitive behaviours and sadness. I love that the story starts out explaining all types of dinosaurs and their own wants and needs out in the wilderness. Then the author shows and tells the reader how to help their children with fear, worry and anxiety. This book is for kids but also for parents because the parent will want to buy this book to read to their kids to learn about anxiety. © 2016 Jackie Paulson

It took a long time for them to get to the point, and the “going around the bush” if you will, ‘that part’ made me think, well, if she (my Grandaughter) wasn’t scared of that already, she will be now. I think it could put ideas in the kids head (their examples) that may not be every kids experience. Once the writers get past the ‘setting it up part’ it flows much better and is well explained. I think the writers need to revisited the beginning for the 3rd edition. Some of the illustration colors were unnecessarily dark and the jagged apparent hand written name on the front should be softened. I do like the size, paper, black ink on white paper makes it easy to read. Again with the font on pages 30/31 is not kid friendly. Overall, getting past these petty points, the message and lesson is good and it will probably be helpful for every child who gets a caring adult to help them through the feeling of anxiety. Recommend.

A solid scientific explanation of anxiety but my son list interest with the second half describing what to do about it. I like the way the book usesa situation my son will never be in to explain the anxiety... there is zero chance he will run into a carnivorous dinosaur so it's really easy for him to focus on the information instead hearing something else to be afraid of (some books cause more trouble than they are worth... it didn't occur to my son to be afraid of dying until we came across it in a book).Talking about coping with anxiety is always less interesting than talking about the anxiety itself and I'm still looking for a book that manages a little better. I was hoping this book would go into the science of the "rest and relax" system as well as the "freeze flight or fight". That said, I liked the variety of ideas including biting a pencil to force a smile, exercising, and yoga.This is a book we will be reading many times, I am sure.

I am an independently licensed Counselor and work with children and teens in an out-patient therapy setting. This book is definitely one of the better resources I have found to teach kids about anxiety without the risk of introducing something new to fear. It is a bit lenghty, and I find that I have to read it over 2 sessions, to prevent information over-load. I do like that that the book explains the sympathetic nervous system, as it helps children understand why they have so many somatic symptoms; however, I think referring to it as the "Fight-or-Flight" response would have been much easier to on the ears and easier for children to remember. I also like the rhymes at the end, intended to help with recall of the 6 coping/calming skills introduced. Overall, I believe it is a good addition to any child therapist's resource collection.

I was worried about my son (8 years old) and his anxiety that I noticed he was having and so I bought this book, I put it on the steps going up to his bedroom and he asked me about it and I told him it was just a book I picked up and he asked if he could read it and I said of course! After that I read it to him and he now understands that what he feels is normal and he speaks openly about it now. I love this book it really helped me through a tough spot in speaking to my son in a way that wouldn't scare him or make him more anxious.

Awesome book for kiddos who struggle with anxiety. It explains it very well in detail. For my 8 year old, who wants all that detail, he loves it. I find it can get long with all that detail. I have shorten those pages from time to time while reading.

This book is incredibly insightful and helpful for children. However, it’s very long and hard to get though it without a child losing focus. So it’s better to choose some pages to read to help children understand anxiety.

Great book for explaining anxiety on a physical-level to kids. Fantasic!

A lot of detail & great explanation for kids. Note that it is lengthy and may be too long/detailed for very young ones (my child is 4 & I had to paraphrase and explain a lot of the terms). I suspect this would be perfect for kids a few years older (7-8 and up), but it allows us to have the right kinds of conversations with our kids & open up opportunities for change. Great message in it that a kid's job is to learn & play & leave the worrying to us grown ups.

I'm giving this book 5 stars because I suffer from anxiety and am on medication for it and this books description of anxiety and ways to combat it was excellent. I'm looking forward to reading this with my daughter who is 6 and shows many similar signs of anxiety.

Recommended by a professional, this book is easily understandable for a 9 yo.

Arrive fast and in perfect condition. An excellent book for explaining anxiety to children. Working as a counsellor for children this is a resource I often offer for parents to read with children. Only note is that it can be a little wordy at times so it is not suited for very young children.