A very common form of treatment for behavioural issues, is called cognitive behavioural therapy. This therapy identifies the role of classical and operant conditioning in behaviour and how things like social anxiety is perpetuated. The cognitive behavioural therapy generally identifies the following behaviours:

• Belief of anxiety producing situation (“Speeches are scary”)
• The situation itself (“I get nervous when i have to give speeches”)
• Sensitivity to feeling anxious about the situation (“I am always nervous in this situation”)
• The anxiety itself (“I am shaking, my palms are sweaty, and my voice is unsteady”)
• The response that reduces the anxiety (“I will not give a speech”)

Think of it in terms of having to make a big speech. Your boss or teacher says someone has to make a speech at an event. You believe the speech giving situation to be particularly stressful. You get chosen to be the one to present.  This makes you very nervous, so you call in sick on the day of the speech, and by such means your anxiety goes away because you no longer have to make the speech.

In cognitive behavioural therapy, exposure is used to cause the conditioned response to become extinct. Via a hierarchy of anxiety producing stimuli, people are exposed to the event/situation that causes them to become anxious. This exposure does not allow for the person to participate in the avoidance strategy, and therefore they must remain exposed until their anxiety reduces on its own. Once the anxiety is reduced people generally come to the realization that the feared situation is not the “end of the world” and is something manageable.

Flett, G.L., Kocovski, N.L., Davison, G.C. & Neale, J.N. (2017). /Abnormal Psychology /(6^th Canadian Edition). Toronto: Wiley.

---

In 2018, Villabø, Narayanan, Compton, Kendall, and Neumer conducted a study with 7-13 year old children who suffered from some form of anxiety disorder. In the study they compared individual and group cognitive behavioural therapies with a waitlisted group.

Looking specifically at children with social anxiety, the group therapy consisted of in-session exposures that required them to introduce themselves to others, and speaking in front of the group. In their everyday lives, these children were given the homework task of practicing speaking in front of others in ways such as reading aloud for classmates or teachers.

The results of the study concluded that 77% of children in the study that met the criteria for social anxiety disorder at the beginning of the study, no longer met the criteria for social anxiety after completing the group cognitive behavioural therapy. Due to the nature of the group therapy compared to the individual therapy, the group therapy was more effective for children with social anxiety.

Villabø, M. A., Narayanan, M., Compton, S. N., Kendall, P. C., & Neumer, S. (2018). Cognitive–behavioral therapy for youth anxiety: An effectiveness evaluation in community practice. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(9), 751-764. doi:http://dx.doi.org.cat1.lib.trentu.ca:8080/10.1037/ccp0000326

---

The main idea of this is not to suggest that if your child is shy that they will develop social anxiety. Most children are shy, it’s something that, for the most part, people grow out of. That being said, if your child is shy you can use the simple concepts of cognitive behavioural therapy to help them combat their shyness. For example, cognitive behavioural therapy uses exposure to help treat social anxiety. The more you expose your children to social situations and get them involved in talking and socializing with others, the more comfortable they will be and therefore the less shy.