He suffers from school phobia

What are the signs that should evoke school phobia?
After having increased the number of absences, the child is completely unable to return to class. He then refuses to leave his home, sometimes even to get up in the morning. He gives up his hobbies, no longer practices any sporting activity, no longer sees his friends and isolates himself more and more. Nothing to do with the “dried up” class hours for a game of table football …
This behavior, a sign of real psychic suffering, very quickly disrupts the family balance. Parents, exhausted, tried different strategies to change his mind: gentleness, negotiation, verbal threat. Usually the child promises to go back to school the following week or after the holidays, but he does not keep his word.

How is the consultation with the psychiatrist?
In general, the first appointment with the child psychiatrist, in the hospital or in a CMP (medico-psychological center) is taken after a month of absence. Often on the advice of the head teacher, guidance counselor or school psychologist.
In consultation, the child may invoke the fear of a teacher whom he does not trust or who makes him uncomfortable. He can also refer to a group of children who persecute him or make fun of him.
In general, it gives “surface” explanations. In fact, school phobia is often linked to an old fear of death and separation, sometimes reactivated by a death that has occurred in those around him. It affects good students as well as less good ones. The only common point between these children is perhaps a difficulty in adapting outside the family cocoon.

How do we overcome the fear of school?
By first proposing to the phobic student … not to go to class anymore: we cannot cure the fear of the dark by leaving a child in the dark! A medical certificate confirms that he is unable to go to school. To continue your education, different formulas are possible. Enrollment in the Cned (National Center for Distance Learning) can be accompanied by personalized tutoring. Thanks to this academic support, psychotherapy and parental support, 70% of students return to a normal course after a year or two. Nine times out of ten, school phobia does not reveal any serious personality disorder.