Solutions to overcome school phobia

What to do when, from one day to the next, your child refuses to get up to go to school? Parents are usually at a loss when faced with this type of situation and often wait far too long before talking to teachers or a health professional. Treatment should not be taken lightly and should be done in close collaboration between the young person, the school and the therapist.

Talking about fear of school with a health professional

The therapeutic approach must be pragmatic, the objectives must be clear! It is imperative to help the young person:

• On returning to school
• To reduce his suffering and disability which are very disabling features of the disorder.
• Preventing complications by trying to do something about them (by making accommodations).

It is important not to endorse absenteeism with a medical certificate (this is the law). Parents must be reminded of their obligation to attend school. This requires a therapeutic alliance with all those involved (child, family, school).

When the child decides to meet a health professional, the follow-up must be limited in time. There is no point in considering months of therapy since the consequences of school phobia are well known. The therapist will propose a therapeutic contract/programme with the family and the child for a fixed period of time.

Consider, sometimes, a period of hospitalisation to treat the school phobia

If there is no progress, hospitalisation may be considered. This is often long (3 to 6 months on average) and consists of re-establishing links with school. The aim is to help the young person to get out of the psychological conditions that he or she has adopted. In other words, it is a matter of helping them to change their erroneous thoughts and beliefs about the way they see school. The treatment to help the young person is often multidimensional. Family psychotherapies (systemic), individual therapies and a cognitive behavioural approach (CBT) are used. Although they are different, these techniques do not oppose but complement each other. Thus, the child will undertake a kind of reschooling within his hospital room. The aim is to enable him to rediscover the pleasure of learning without fear of his disorder. Mathematical exercises are often avoided because they represent too great a risk of difficulty and failure for the young person. Documentary work will therefore be favoured so that he can regain pleasure in this activity. Gradually, the young person will be led to take steps to overcome his difficulties and learn to mobilise his resources. The young person will also be brought into contact with other children in order to re-establish social links: he will learn to work with a small group of people to bring him to reassert himself (by going on the blackboard, by expressing himself to present results, etc.)

Freeing oneself from the fear of school through a gradual return

When the evolution of the disorders and the work carried out with the health teams are satisfactory, a very gradual return to school is envisaged. The courses will be offered almost “à la carte” for the young person, after consultation between the school and the therapist. It is essential that the young person be able to return to school at his or her own pace so as not to trigger a relapse. This work is carried out in close collaboration with the family, the school and the teachers. Some schools offer to send these children to school temporarily to encourage this gradual return. For example, the first week could be devoted to exploring school phobia so that the young person can understand its main components. Gradually, the school psychologist brings change and desensitisation to school thoughts. He or she will accompany the young person to help him or her regain the pleasure of going back to school. He will help him to work on what interests him, and will gradually confront him with difficulties. This will enable the young person to regain his or her autonomy and teach him or her how to deal with future obstacles. At the same time, work with other pupils can be done by exposing them to their classmates, for example. This integration takes place over several months and it is thanks to this close alliance with the school that a significant improvement is made possible.

Virtual reality exposure therapy and school phobia

School phobia brings together several heterogeneous disorders that share the same symptoms. Indeed, it can be the result of a strong separation anxiety in the child who cannot bear to leave his parents even for a short period. It can also be a combination of several specific phobias such as glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, and atychiphobia – the scientific name for the fear of failure – for example. 

In any case, to effectively treat school anxiety, it is necessary to first determine its origin. Virtual Reality Exposure Therapies (VRET) are a relevant means of making an initial diagnosis insofar as the phobic person is exposed to different specific situations in the school setting. The therapist can then identify the automatic thoughts at work in these configurations that condition the individual’s reactions and thus better understand the real nature of the disorder. 

The TERVs also make it possible to equip people suffering from school phobia with tools for managing their emotions more effectively thanks to immersion in virtual reality, so that these people are able to face situations that make them anxious. They can also be used to work on assertiveness and self-confidence to better take into account their needs and have them respected by others. In the long run, progressive and repeated exposure to the most problematic situations should lead to the disappearance of the anxious response in the child and thus his or her return to school.