20 Tips to Help De-escalate Interactions With Anxious or Defiant Students. Anxiety is a huge barrier to learning and very difficult for educators to identify. “When anxiety is fueling the behavior, it’s the most confusing and complicated to figure out,” Minahan said. That’s because a student isn’t always anxious; it tends to come and go based on events in their lives, so their difficulties aren’t consistent. When we are anxious our working memory tanks, making it very difficult to recall any salient information.
Researchers surveyed a group of first graders none of whom had any reading or math disabilities. Those who had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder were eight times more likely to be in the lowest achieving group in reading, and two-point-five times more likely to be in the lowest quartile in math achievement by the spring. “Anxiety is a learning disability; it inhibits your ability to learn,” Minahan said.
“Rewards and consequences are super helpful to increase motivation for something I’m able to do,” Minahan said.