What parents can do for anxious children

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What parents can do for anxious children

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There are a couple of really important things that a parent can do, even without the involvement of a therapist, to help them with anxiety. They can preview the activity that is going to create the anxiety, and they can come up with a plan to deal with that anxiety provoking event in a very gradual way. Most kids, if there is anything that is going to be anxiety provoking, they will try to avoid it. It is important to couple the anxiety provoking event with a reward. An example would be, if your child is afraid of spiders. You want him to look through a book of spiders with pictures. What you may want to do is couple that experience with a reward like an ice cream cone or something like that. So your child is still willing to do the anxiety provoking activity in order to get the reward.

See Preetpal Sandhu, MD's video on What parents can do for anxious children...

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Preetpal Sandhu, MD

Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist

Dr. Sandhu is a UCLA-trained, Board Certified Psychiatrist who has practiced Psychiatry at UCLA and in Beverly Hills for several years. He did his undergraduate work at UCLA where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He then completed medical school at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine and was named a Dean's scholar. He also received a master’s degree in Business Administration from University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business where he was named to the Dean's list.

Dr. Sandhu then pursued training in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles, Neuropsychiatric Institute (now named the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior). While at UCLA completing his residency and fellowship he was named the Chief Fellow of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training program. He then proceeded to work at UCLA as part of the Attending Staff on the Child and Adolescent Inpatient unit. He is a member in good standing of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists (AACAP) and has served as the Southern California Regional Organization’s President.

His areas of interest include attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and the roles coordinated psychiatry and psychotherapy can have in jointly improving outcomes.

Dr. Sandhu lives in the Los Angeles area with his family and is actively involved in teaching medical students, residents, and fellows at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In his free time, he enjoys surfing, snowboarding, basketball, golf, video games, and travel.

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