April 2026 | Vol. 12 Iss.4
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West Jordan
Small and Tall
Annual dance adds sensory-friendly experience Page 9
Kindest kid in the world
Falcon Ridge student receives honor in special school assembly Page 20
Parents receive surprising advice from anxiety expert By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com
Think you are helping your anxious child? You may be doing just the opposite.
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arents looking for advice to help their anxious children received some surprising advice from Licensed Clinical Psychologist Kristy Ludwig, Ph.D., Ed. M. in her presentation “Navigating Anxiety: What Truly Helps Students Thrive” — stop accommodating and stop with all the breathing exercises. “Everything about a parent is designed to protect and rescue and save your child, which is why it’s really tricky when you have a child that’s really anxious, because all the parenting feelings inside of you that are very, very understandable, make you want to do these things,” Ludwig said. “Unfortunately, it’s not always the most helpful thing.” She explained that anxious kids use avoidance behaviors to stay out of situations in which they feel uncomfortable feelings of stress, fear, embarrassment and anxiety, and that it is often the parents and teachers that en-
able these patterns of behavior when they’re just trying to help. “We want to empower kids to be able to do things that are uncomfortable and hard, and when we help them to avoid things that make them anxious, we are actually doing the opposite of that and we’re sending the message that they can’t do it, or that we don’t think they can,” Ludwig said. Ludwig’s solution is for parents to change their responses and behaviors to high support, low accommodation to convey their confidence that their child is able to handle hard things. That means less rescuing, helping and protecting anxious children. April Cole, parent of an anxious elementary school student, was surprised when she heard protecting a child from uncomfortable situations actually makes their anxiety worse. After the presentation, she said she plans to make some changes in her behavior and parenting approach. “I’m thinking about how I can change how I react to my child and how I Continued on page 8
Psychologist Kristy Ludwig shares tips for parenting anxious children at a community presentation at Copper Hills High School March 4. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)
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