Free-Range Kids

Lenore Skenazy | 6.21.2024 9:57 AM

A study just published in the prestigious Journal of Anxiety Disorders describes a "novel treatment" for clinically anxious kids: letting them do new things, on their own, without their parents.

In other words, letting them be Free-Range Kids.

The pilot study, by Long Island University psychology professor Camilo Ortiz and his doctoral student Matthew Fastman, focused on four kids. In his everyday practice, Ortiz would often use cognitive behavioral therapy to treat kids with anxiety. This involves exposing patients to the very thing that scares them so that they can overcome it. For instance, a person deathly afraid of dogs might be shown a picture of a dog, then stand in the same room as a dog, and finally have to pet the dog.

Independence therapy works differently.

"We didn't actually have the kids face the things they're afraid of," says Ortiz.

The patients included:

The independence therapy involved each family separately visiting Ortiz five times, in his office or on Zoom. At the........

© Reason.com