Accommodations 

Making accomodations for students with anxiety ensures that they are in a space where they are able to learn, and prevents anxiety from becoming worse over time. Based on what we know about anxiety, the information below is meant to provide tips for teachers on how to handle situations and structure classrooms in a way that does not hinder growth and education.  

From the Internation OCD Foundation's Anxiety in the Classroom Website:

Not All Accommodations are Helpful – It is important to make sure that an accommodation is, indeed, helpful and does not exacerbate a student’s symptoms. For example, if a student has checking or perfectionism, then an accommodation of extra time on all tests may simply be providing more time for the student to ritualize. A more appropriate accommodation for these symptoms might be to have the test broken up into different sections or to have a test given orally.

Specifc accomodations should be made individually, and be designed to help students, not make symptoms worse. 

Information adapted from: Moran, K. (2015). Anxiety in the classroom: Implications for middle school teachers. Middle School Journal, 47(1), 27–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43958586


General Practices




The accommodations in the charts below are based on common anxiety expiriences. They are adapted from Killu, K., Marc, R., & Crundwell, A. (2016). Students With Anxiety in the Classroom: Educational Accommodations and Interventions. Beyond Behavior, 25(2), 30–40