PARENTS OF exam pupils should be careful not to project their own anxieties onto their children, a child psychiatrist has warned.
Prof Fiona McNicholas, who works with children who suffer from serious anxiety problems, said both the child and the parent were prone to stress in the run-up to exams.
She said it was important for parents not to get too uptight or project their worries on to children.
"Otherwise the child will be impacted by that and it will only make matters worse," she said.
Prof McNicholas, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist with the Lucena Clinic in Dublin, said parents could calm themselves by helping their children to prepare in practical ways, such as helping them to work out a timetable for the work they needed to do.
However, she said exam stress was not a bad thing and that parents should not try to protect their child from all stress.
It was important that children experience and learn to cope with stress.
"They can learn from these stressors, and where better than a supportive home environment to experience stress and learn to feel that they can overcome it," she said.
"It is much better to experience this when they have the support of home rather than later when they are at college and away from home."
A degree of stress was also useful because it motivated people to work, but it was important to remember that children differed in the level of stress with which they could cope.
"You need to decide what level of stress will help motivate them or will paralyse them," Prof McNicholas said.
Children who tended to be anxious - who worried about being late for school or not getting their homework done - were likely to have most difficulty coping with exam stress.
Parents could help their children in a variety of ways, she said, though she cautioned against hovering around the child as they studied.
Children could be helped to timetable their study sessions, to break down their revision into manageable chunks and to work for periods of 60-90 minutes - depending on their age - and then to take 15-minute breaks between sessions.
At the end of a study session, parents could chat with their child about what they had just studied, to help ensure the child was actually absorbing the material.
"There is nothing more anxiety-promoting than doing four hours of study and then realising that nothing has gone in," she said.
If a child is having difficulty absorbing the information, they should be encouraged to take notes as they study, or do mind maps and diagrams.
They could also make study sessions more productive by starting with a difficult subject and then doing one they find easier afterwards, she said.
Parents should also allow their children time to meet their friends, possibly as a reward between study sessions.
Prof McNicholas also emphasised the importance of getting enough sleep, taking exercise and good nutrition. Working late at night was not a good idea as it interfered with sleep patterns.
For children or parents who were showing stress symptoms - irritability, anxiety, difficulty sleeping - Prof McNicholas advised breathing exercises to help relaxation, listening to gentle music and taking gentle walks.
It was also very important to keep the exam in perspective and to point out to children that there were a variety of courses they could do or paths they could take and that everything did not depend on one exam.
Prof McNicholas will be talking tonight (Tuesday) at the Lucena Clinic in Rathgar, Dublin, at 7pm on how parents can help children cope with exam stress.
To book a place please ring tel: 01-4923596
For further information, visit www.lucenaclinic.ie