How to Help your Child with Clumsiness And Anxiety

All children experience clumsiness as they develop and improve their motor and coordination skills. Thus, it is something that most parents would tend to ignore. Recent studies, however, reveal that aside from visual or orthopedic (flat feet or toeing-in) causes, clumsiness may also indicate a neurological concern that requires medical attention. It may also be triggered by certain anxiety symptoms, which in turn can be caused by a deep-seated emotional concern.

To rule out the possibilities, you would want to make sure that the motor difficulties your child is manifesting is something they will outgrow in due time. Seeing a child therapist can be your first stop to rule out anxiety.

Clumsiness: A Second Look

Frequent bumping into furniture, slips and falls, and other signs of motor difficulties may indicate a deeper reason, which is why clumsiness deserves a second look. Annell, in the 1940s, describes a clumsy child as being: ‘… awkward in movements, poor at games, hopeless in dancing and gymnastics, a bad writer and defective in concentration. He is inattentive, cannot sit still, leaves his shoelaces untied, does buttons wrongly, bumps into furniture, breaks glassware, slips off his chair, kicks his legs against the desk, and perhaps reads badly.’

According to Kirby and Sugden (2007) in a scientific report published in Journal of Royal Society of Medicine, motor difficulties may cause a considerable impact on the lives of the affected children.

Clumsiness in Relation to Anxiety

Anxiety does not really directly cause clumsiness, but certain symptoms may trigger it. For instance, a child with anxiety symptoms may be too focused on the objects of their fear or phobia, so that everything else in the environment becomes irrelevant. They may not notice the objects that they would hit with certain movements or drop when their hands quiver with fear panic.

If parents would trivialize clumsiness as a “passing stage,” they may grow up with their anxiety being undiagnosed and untreated. It may get more complicated as they also develop anxiety overthinking and anxiety hesitation, which may make them indecisive, fearful, and fraught with low self-esteem.

Giving the Right Help to Your Child

If your child’s clumsiness is triggered by anxiety symptoms, you can help them overcome the feeling by consulting with a child therapist for proper evaluation, diagnosis and treatment. Clumsiness and anxiety can make adjusting and meeting life changes unduly more difficult. With a therapist independently contracted with Carolina Counseling Services – Fuquay-Varina, NC to help your child grow confident and secure, they stand to better handle whatever challenge may come their way.

Knowing you made it possible that they grow with curbed anxiety symptoms it would be fulfilling to watch on the sideline as they soar and reach for their “stars.”

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