Children with performance anxiety are afraid of failure. They experience this fear when they have to do something they find difficult, but want to do well.
When children suffer from this anxiety disorder, they often get physical complaints such as clammy and sweaty hands, headaches, they sleep poorly and are often tired.
They feel stressed and worry a lot.
Why do they get this anxiety?
Fear of failure can arise because children are convinced that they are ‘stupid’ and not good enough. This oppressive feeling can arise because children often experience high pressure to perform. School performance and social pressure can have a major impact.
3 types of fear of failure
There are three different types of performance anxiety. With cognitive performance anxiety, children are afraid that the knowledge they have is not enough. They are afraid that they have not studied well and that they will get bad grades. The second form is social performance anxiety. With this fear, children are afraid of what other children think of them. In addition, there is also fine motor performance anxiety. This form of performance anxiety makes it difficult to perform fine motor tasks even though they are physically able to do them. Children then experience a lot of tension when exercising, reading, writing or drawing, for example.
How to overcome fear of failure with creativity
Creativity can play an important role in overcoming fear of failure! By achieving small moments of success, a child’s self-confidence can grow. By making simple drawings with a lot of attention, children are busy in the here and now. It is a kind of meditation in which they relax and play with shapes, lines and colours. When they do this regularly, this simple way of meditation can have major impact.
1. Improve concentration and focus
When children draw or paint in a quiet environment, they concentrate better. The more often they can work calmly and concentrated on a project, the longer their attention span will become. Their focus gets better and their concentration span gets longer, which raises the level of their work.
2. Improve motor skills
Because they develop more patience and focus, their fine motor skills improve. As their finger dexterity improves, everyday skills such as eating with a knife and fork, tying shoelaces, writing for example, also become much easier.
3. Create self-confidence
By achieving more and more success moments, children’s self-confidence rises. Making something beautiful with your own hands can boost your self-confidence. They are more open to trying out new techniques.
4. Problem solving ability
Children who draw and paint with enthusiasme often get ideas spontaneously while they create. They learn to make choices along the way. While creating, they learn to come up with solutions for different sorts of problems.
5. Fun
But especially having fun while creating an art project is the most important! Self-expression, trying nes things out and making mistakes is a good thing!
I have seen many hundreds of children flourish and develop a positive self-image during my online drawing and painting lessons. Great to see!
By keeping the bar low and maintaining a clear structure during the online art class, children learn to push their limits a little further every time and enjoy creating new things in a comfortable way. I give them positive feedback and tips so that they can develop and grow at their own pace.
Book a free online trial drawing lesson
Do you want to experience how I help children overcome their fears? Book a free online trial lesson drawing and we will create a very cool piece of art together.