Whether your child has an actual anxiety disorder or just takes the everyday blows of school and socializing too much to heart, watching her struggle with her fears, worries, and phobias can make a parent feel powerless. Teaching your child strategies to bring all that scariness down to size can make both you and your anxious one feel powerful again. Freeing Your Child from Anxiety offers a lot of good information about why and how anxiety afflicts children and what diagnoses and medications you might want to consider if your child is truly paralyzed by these fears.

 It's all good and helpful reading for parents, but if you want to get off to a quick start, turn to Chapter Five and its six-step "Master Plan for Anxiety." Make this into a teaching experience with your child by:

• Finding a comfortable place where your child can feel free to talk, and you will be uninterrupted by siblings or phone calls.
• Setting aside a little time every day in that comfortable place to work on this master plan.
• At your child's own pace, work through the six steps; you may have to gather some special materials, or take little "field trips" to use some of the tips.
• Pull in exercises and illustrations from throughout the book to enrich your sessions.
• Use The Floppy Sleep Game Book as a supplemental text for its relaxation and breathing exercises.
• Use things that happen outside your official "learning sessions" as teachable moments for understanding and confronting fears, then discuss them during your special time together.

You'll want to read through the chapter completely and become comfortable with the content before sharing it with your child; there may be things you'll want to skip or to personalize for your child, and you won't want to read word for word from the book.

 But do let your child see that there is a book all about anxiety, and help her realize how many kids must feel the same for someone to have published a book with all these ideas. Knowing she's not alone may be a big help right there.