My child is afraid to go back to school
Parents and guardians currently considering the choices to make when it comes to reopening schools during the height of a deadly outbreak may have an additional challenge on their hands: children afraid to return to the classroom. Feelings of agitation are common and expected in times of change or transition. This is especially true for children and adolescents returning to school or children entering kindergarten for the first time.
Key takeaways
- School phobia manifests itself through physical symptoms (nausea, stomach aches) and separation anxiety.
- Virtual reality places the child in a simulated and secure school environment.
- Exposure therapy (VRET) is supervised by a therapist who adjusts the situations.
- The approach can be combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
- It adapts to the age and specific fears of each child.
1. Symptoms and characteristics of school phobia
Young people who suffer from school paranoia are often sentimental, insecure and very touchy. They want to be close to their parents and tend to be nervous if separated.
Parents may imagine that fear of school is likely to occur any time children:
- Exhibit physical signs just before having to leave for school, such as nausea, stomach ache, diarrhea, vomiting or extreme exhaustion without any specific medical reason
- Becoming clingy, grumpy, or showing signs of worry when away from loved ones or parents
- Possess extreme concern about being alone or illogical fears
- Recurring nightmares and difficulty sleeping
- Have signs on school days, but they are okay during weekends and school holidays.
- Children with school phobia may refuse to go to school for extended periods of time.
2. Context of innovation based on virtual reality (VR)
VR is a high-tech interface that allows users to submit, through a computer-generated environment, to a monitored situation. This innovation was gradually used in the context of mental health treatment further inside the clinical study. VR strives for parallel realism and generates a society that is both practical and mesmerizing. Users experience VR whenever they believe the hypothesis accurately simulates the real-world experience it attempts to reinvent. The logic of existence in virtual reality is made possible through the use of expertise such as head-mounted displays, synthesized sounds, motion-sensing gloves, etc. Which allow many senses to be awakened and the virtual environment to be dynamically probed.
Virtual Reality Therapy: What is it?
3. How Does Virtual Reality Therapy Help School Nervousness?
While many children are happy to return to school and reunite with their friends, for many, a new school term/year brings with it distress and academic nervousness. However, what if your child could safely enter their classroom, mingle with their new classmates and teachers, and learn operational approaches to managing the worrying circumstances they fear at school? With VR therapy, this can be done effortlessly. Researchers and therapists say the good news is that VR expertise and usability are rapidly improving through its industrial and gaming applications, so its prospect as a cure for mental health is only just beginning.
What Happens During Virtual Reality Therapy?
Research has proven that virtual reality therapy essentially “reshapes” the brain in a way that amplifies the parts concerned with caring and friendship. This allows for better understanding and awareness of social cues, better understanding of grip and dialogue, and additional control whenever one is faced with real-world academic issues. In research done after children underwent VR exposure therapy, scans revealed that sections of the brain related to social skills and regions that exchange information in social interactions are improved.
This visually refreshing and responsive approach to tackling school phobia offers a dynamic podium that can manufacture any number of fear circumstances. Pursuing a child's precise uncertainties provides life-like evocative circumstances with instantaneous reaction, which greatly enriches the child's ability to handle tension.
Children and Virtual Reality Processing
Virtual Reality Exposure Treatment (VRET) involves personalized virtual environments that have been cautiously developed to support exposure therapy of nervous conditions. Through virtual reality, the child is subjected to frightening conditions in a safe and managed environment, instead of taking them into the real environment or having the young person imagine it.
The virtual situation is supervised by a therapist, which guarantees complete regulation of subjection to the feared state. The VRET allows the therapist to influence situations to suit the individual during a typical therapy period and within the confines of the therapist's workplace.
In Brief
Cognitive-behavioral therapy enriched with virtual reality could be a useful auxiliary tool to treat school phobia. The dominant component of this treatment is exposure therapy, which involves helping clients become calmer about the state of affairs that frightens them. VR technology places the customer in computer-created environments where they experience a classroom and school setting. At first, clients learn to cope with the situation and are then put into the VR situation. Clients can practice in this virtual world until they are satisfied with the experience and their responses.
If a complicated treatment tactic is necessary, virtual reality therapy is directly pooled with other teaching techniques to offer a comprehensive engagement strategy.
VR treatment is developing as a sophisticated solution that allows children to face their fears in a harmless and realistic situation, but in a way that offers them control. Virtual reality therapy can be used in all age groups and can be adapted to the child's age as they grow.
Additionally, this therapy can be adapted to contrast the implication of school phobia situations. For example, one child may be anxious about taking exams, while others fear relationships with peers. Both children can be helped by VR therapy, which is a mixture of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and in vivo exposure treatment, but with the latest technology.
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FAQ about the child who is afraid of returning to school and virtual reality
Why use virtual reality in the field of mental health?
Virtual reality allows graduated and controlled exposure to anxiety-provoking situations, in a secure and reproducible setting. It promotes patient engagement and allows the practitioner to adapt each environment to their specific needs, for personalized care.
What pathologies can be treated in virtual reality?
Virtual reality treats anxiety disorders, including phobias and post-traumatic stress, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorders, addictions and mood disorders. It is also used in cognitive remediation. In children, it applies in particular to school phobia.
Which patients can benefit from a VRET?
Virtual reality exposure therapy is aimed at children as well as adults facing an anxiety disorder. For school phobia, it is suitable for young people who are anxious about exams or relationships with their classmates, whatever their age.
Can virtual reality be dangerous?
Used in a setting supervised by a practitioner, virtual reality does not present any particular danger. Some people may experience cybersickness, a sensation similar to motion sickness, which affects around 10% of users. The practitioner then adjusts the exposure.
Can I feel nauseous while using the headset?
A feeling of nausea, called cybersickness, can occur in around 10% of people using a virtual reality headset. The practitioner adapts the intensity and duration of exposure to limit this discomfort and allow gradual habituation.
How is virtual reality used?
The practitioner places the patient in a virtual environment reproducing the feared situation, here a school context, using a headset and sensory accessories. The situation remains constantly supervised, which allows exposure to be adjusted according to the patient's reactions.
How long has this existed?
C2Care has been developing and testing its virtual reality software in hospitals since 2016. This experience has made it possible to gradually adapt the environments offered to the needs of practitioners and patients, in particular to treat school phobia in children.
References
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Virtual reality helps calm kids anxiety during treatment
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National library of medicine
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4 causes of back to school anxiety and how to help
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Anxiety Treatment NYC
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Author
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