Accommodations for Anxiety Are Often Counterproductive
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses research showing that avoidance-based accommodations for student anxiety — like removing time limits or excusing public speaking — actually reinforce the anxiety they're meant to address.
Key Takeaways
- Avoidance reinforces anxiety - Excusing students from anxiety-provoking activities reinforces the false belief that those situations are actually dangerous
- The average anxious student receives 20 accommodations - Many are avoidance-based: no time limits, private testing, alternate formats, or complete exemptions
- Students are more capable than we assume - Students naturally rise to meet challenges, and academic difficulty is necessary for growth
- Well-intentioned 'kindness' can cause harm - Protecting students from all discomfort may actually worsen their anxiety and limit their development
Transcript
Schools are accommodating student anxiety and making it worse according to a new article by Alex Jordan and Ben Levitt who are psychologists writing for Teachers College at Columbia University and this is not an outlet that I would expect to say something like this but I'm glad that they're saying it because if we at school help kids with anxiety avoid the things they're anxious about what's that going to do to their anxiety well they explain quite clearly that that is going to increase their anxiety.
It is going to reinforce the false idea that the thing they're anxious about is actually dangerous.
Like, if you have anxiety about public speaking.
Well, public speaking is not actually harmful.
It's not actually dangerous.
And you are accommodated in that anxiety by getting out of public speaking, getting out of reading in front of the class.
If you're anxious about timed tests and you're given an accommodation that says, well, you don't have to take timed tests, you have as much time as you need, That is going to harm you as a student and reinforce the idea that you can't do it, that you don't have what it takes, that the situation is just unmanageable.
And I think what we've got to remind students and reinforce for students, whether they have anxiety or not, and what we've got to remind ourselves of is that students are capable.
Students do rise to challenges and students need to be challenged in order to get success.
and education.
So check this article out.
I'll put the link in the comments.
Schools are accommodating student anxiety and making it worse.
And they point out that the average student with anxiety gets 20 accommodations in school, many of which are avoidance-based.
You don't have to do it.
You don't have a time limit.
You can do it privately.
You have an alternate format.
If the thing that we're asking kids to do is good for them, we should not let them out of it in the name of kindness.
Let me know what you think.