10. Helping Children Understand Anxiety And Promoting Positive Behaviour - 2025
Help children understand what anxiety is, how to manage it and how to promote positive behaviour
Anxiety is reaching epidemic proportions in children, and an increasing amount of time for Teachers is being spent dealing with it, and trying to helping children to navigate an increasingly complex world.
In this EPV course we discuss the neuroscience and psychology of anxiety. Alongside that, the course focuses on practical strategies that you can use with students at school. You will also be able to aplly these techniques in all aspects of your life.
Topics covered include the brain bases of anxiety, how controlling your physiology helps with anxiety, what healthy emotional regulation looks like, and how School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support can foster an environment that helps with anxiety.
Our comprehensive lesson plans and resources provide you and your learners with the skills to overcome challenges and thrive both at home and in school. The aim of this course is to use the Actualise Academy Model of Neuroscience, Clinical/Emotional Psychology and Behavioural Science to introduce Teachers to the various mechanisms and actions that can help you apply the theory in practice.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Here is a list of the modules in this course, with the learning outcomes of each. We also build in School Self Evaluation into all courses, making the SSE Process as smooth as possible:
Module 1: The Neuroscience of Anxiety. Participants will learn:
- Why anxiety exists and how it is maintained
- What strategies we can use to help deal more effectively with anxiety
Module 2: Controlling Physiology to Help With Anxiety. Participants will:
- Learn how breathing techniques can help with anxiety
- How mindful approaches help with anxiety
Module 3: Healthy Emotional Regulation. Participants will learn:
- The basic aspects of healthy emotional regulation
- How to foster healthy regulation of emotions in the classroom and outside it
- How to foster resilience
Module 4: Positive Behaviour Support. Participants learn:
- How a school-wide positive behaviour support strategy can help create a safe, positive school environment
Module 5: Practical Functional Behavioural Assessments. Participants learn
- Methodologies to help understand the messages behind student behaviour
- Where applicable, relate these to potential anxiety provoking factors.
- To use the SSE framework to make judgements regarding the school’s current strengths and areas for development regarding SWPBS.
Additional Resources Available With This Course:
Additions resources include lesson plans, interviews with clinical staff, useful, relatable articles resources to use in the classroom and much more.
" A very informative course, with very practical ideas that can be used in the classroom. I will go back to school with a few more motivating ideas having completed your course!"
- Mr. Daniel Maloney
Your Instructor
Pádraig Walsh BA, MSc, BCBA, A.F.Ps.S.I. is Actualise Academy's Behaviour Psychologist. He is intrigued by people, their behaviour and his expertise lies in helping people to understand why we do what we do. His range of knowledge and experience is diverse, working with both children and adults across educational, clinical and residential settings. He is a regular contributor on RTÉ Radio and as Behavioural Psychologist for The 6 O'Clock Show on Virgin Media 1.
Pádraig qualified with a Masters in Applied Behaviour Analysis after completing his degree in Psychology (both at NUI Galway). He has worked as a Behaviour Specialist for organisations across Ireland as well as working for 2 years in Melbourne, Australia as a consultant to an early intervention clinic for children. Pádraig has presented his research extensively at conferences on the effectiveness of Positive Behaviour Support in Ireland, Australia, Singapore and the UK. He is part of the MSc (ABA) interview panel at NUI Galway and also lectures on the MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis in NUI Galway and Trinity College, Dublin as well as on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in the University of Limerick.
Pádraig is the founder of the podcast series All About Dis' exploring disability issues in Ireland today. You can find the episodes on iTunes and on Soundcloud. Having spent most of his early life playing GAA in his native Westmeath, Pádraig has more recently discovered his artistic side performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with his Improv group Kirsty.