Drama Presentation. Teen anxiety attack

[CosyNavyLeader]

My 13 year old (year 8) daughter has a drama Presentation in school tomorrow and she is having anxiety attacks and losing sleep over it.

What do I do? Should I force her? Should I fake a dentist appointment to get her out of school?

She has no intention of taking Drama at GCSE so it's no loss.

I just don't know how to make this better for her.

I hate the thought of her feeling like this, but at the same time I totally get it.

Any advice welcome, please.

If it’s Drama she’ll probably be letting others down. If she has no intention of taking it why has she made the assessment into a big deal?
She will have to present on many things whilst in education and beyond, please don’t teach her rhat you will get her out of this.

Could it be possible for her to do it just to the teacher? And then find ways to build her confidence- the ability to talk in from of others is such an important life skill.

@CosyNavyLeader you need to encourage her to face this down or it will become a bigger problem. Help her to put it into perspective - she won't be the only one nervous about it, and it'll be over in 24 hours. You could also email the teacher to let her know how your DD is feeling. She might be able to help by letting her go first to get it over with quickly.

She'll feel much better after she's done it than she'll feel if you help her skip it.

I think your daughter has to push through her anxiety if possible. She will probably have other presentations to do for exam subjects which she can't get out of. Certainly contact the school to find out if there are alternative ways of doing the presentation but don't allow her to get out of it. As someone said, she may be letting down a group.

My daughter has anxiety (prob adhd) when she has drama she is allowed to do group work in a quiet space away from the main group of people so she is not seen by everyone. I don’t know if that’s possible. She also does stuff in other classes like helping out instead of having to do gymnastics in front of people.

i would try and email the teacher and explain how worried she is, see if they can work around it in some way.

@GrammarTeacher

luckily by daughters school are far more understanding than you about her worries and worth with her and don’t force her but encourage and support her to do what she can

What do you mean by anxiety attacks?

For Eng Lang GCSE she will have to do a presentation.
If she does an MFL she will have to do a speaking exam.

My DD's Level 2 BTEC at college requires her to do a zookeeper talk.

If at all possible better for her to face her fears and realise it wasn't so bad after all. Teach her how to calm her nerves. Practice with her.

You have completely misunderstood me.
Presentations will have to be done. Something like this which is low stakes is the perfect one to work through things in. There is also a huge difference between having anxiety and being anxious. The work still has to be done.
I’ve worked with many students who were originally anxious about drama. They all perform at the end of the year in the size of role that they are comfortable with.

I think sometimes you need to push through your anxiety. Avoidance isn't always fir the best if you want to live a full life.

No, I absolutely wouldn't be spearheading a scheme to lie to get her out of school.

First, tell your DD that most people feel some amount of anxiety around public speaking and a lot of people feel extremely anxious about it. Other students will be anxious too - her audience will largely be full of people who are thinking about their own upcoming presentations and nerves and people who are giddy in relief at having gotten through theirs. Being able to overcome these nerves and speak in front of people is a skill that needs active practice for almost everyone, and that's actually one of the reasons that many schools have everyone take some drama prior to GCSE selection. Thinking she can't manage giving a presentation to a group won't serve her well.

Talk about some tools she can use before and during to help with her anxiety; like breathing and grounding herself, repeating reminders to herself that she's prepared and will feel better once she's talking and wonderful once she's done, and that everyone else is nervous too. And point out that if she needs to end her presentation early she can (a reduced mark for cutting things short is better than no mark) because one of the biggest aids for anxiety attacks is knowing that you can exit the situation if needed. Have her practice an early wrap-up line.

If none of that is enough for her to be able to tackle this then the nuclear option isn't to skive off school with parent help, it's to go to the teacher and say "I've prepared my presentation but I just can't do it in front of the whole class" and work out (potentially with your support & facilitation) an alternative that's manageable but not complete avoidance of the entire task.

30 years Drama/Perf. Arts Teacher. LAMDA external examiner.
I let groups perform at break or lunch time to avoid the anxiety. Always have done .
I've also enabled those who don't like performing to pick a design or tech option I can assess their learning on.
Costume.
Lighting.
Sound.
Set design.
I must stress that these are concept designs rather than projects that can be realised at KS3.
It's the engagement and understanding of the semiotics etc ,not just the performance.
Of course if they decide to create a costume or shoe box set it's brilliant.
I don't see a reason to any pupil uncomfortable and this includes reading scripts In front of the class or reading from a novel or text book.

Thankyou for the replies. I emailed her head of year and explained the situation.

She is currently on a waiting list for sessions with the school nurse to help with her anxiety. She suffers with anxiety attacks.

Her drama teacher is going to let her do the presentation during lunch time, alone, to practice building her confidence.

I'm glad your daughter has a sympathetic teacher. Hopefully this approach will help

That’s great @CosyNavyLeader

my daughters drama teacher who worked with her for adjustments had adhd - I found she just ‘got’ her in a way others didn’t.

That's great. Im glad the teacher is being supportive and has offered a good solution. It's not always as easy as just getting on with it if she's suffering with this much anxiety prior.

Thanks for being understanding. I just don't know what to do with her sometimes.

I often wonder if she has ADHD/Asperger's.

Perhaps the school nurse will pick that up?

I know that it's commonly diagnosed at this age in girls.

State schools dont really have school nurses like that. If you think she might be neurodivergent contact the school’s SENCO and go from there.

Don’t let her dip out. Talk to about working with others and what she’ll accomplish by doing something that’s difficult for her.

If you fake a medical emergency you teach her that it’s ok to let others down, and to lie in order to avoid doing something she’s scared of.

Give her the tools to work through her fear.