By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

While some parents and children are excited about the first day of school each fall, there are others who are anxious about that change in daily life after summer break.

Joe Vaughan, executive director at IHR, says that is very normal and lent some tips to help ease the tension of getting back to school, classes and catching up with classmates.

“For the child that’s anxious, I always say prepare – talk about it, talk about what they’re anxious about. It could be something very, very simple for kids or it could be something more serious. Maybe they’re getting bullied or there’s some issue they’re having that they’re worried about carrying into the new year that happened to them last year. Always have a good talk with them. Have them write down what their thoughts are, what they want to work on, what are they afraid of and you can kind of process that with them,” Vaughan said.

The full forum with Vaughan is available in our podcast section at WJEZ.com.