Emotion management has been shown to correlate closely with academic performance. When a student is over stressed, he or she is unlikely to perform at his or her best. In extreme cases, exam stress can cause physical symptoms, such as stomach upsets and headaches.

Helping your child manage their emotions well can be the key to their future success. One of the most important ways you can do this is by modelling good coping mechanisms yourself. When parents express nervousness or fear in the face of problems, children tend to follow suit. Here are the key skills which you can model for your child to help them succeed in exams:

1. Stay calm and relax when problems arise
Do not respond to issues with emotions. Even if you feel angry or frustrated, try to talk through your thought process and reason out a solution, rather than showing your initial emotional response.

2. Be encouraging of effort, not just outcome
Though you know that you love your child unconditionally, their stress may make them overly sensitive to criticism. Then this critical voice can become internalised, and they will give up before trying, as they feel sure they will fail. A focus on encouraging statements at times of stress will help your child to push through times of trouble.

3. Try to avoid blame
Blaming others does not help to solve problems. However, children easily learn how satisfying it feels to blame others rather than accept responsibility for their own actions. Help them see that taking responsibility for mistakes is a positive step in improving.

Helping your child gain these valuable emotion management skills will set them out on the path to success!