I Bet I Won't Fret: A Workbook to Help Children with Generalized Anxiety Disorder [With CDROM]

My 11 yo son, who has Asperger's Syndrome, is working through this book. His worries range from not getting enough sleep to asteroids hitting earth, or germs on his hands, or global warming's effect on snow, and so on. "I Bet I Won't Fret" is a very useful book on many levels. First, the fact there is a book designed just for kids to work on anxiety helped my son believe me when I said, "Many kids have anxiety, it's not just you." It was less stressful just to know and believe he wasn't alone. Second, it is written so that kids can do it independently, they set up their reward (it is a behaviorial approach and so includes the idea of rewards for working through the book) with their parent and then can do the exercises independently. I'd say 4th/5th through middle school. Third, there are a variety of activities to choose from - learning to recognize stressors, analyzing how others handle worries, changing self-talk, developing an anti-anxious plan, relaxation and breathing, problem solving, talking back to worries, and so on. This is helpful because every child is different, and some strategies will be more useful than others for any given child. There are bound to be a few real gems for any child in this book. I would definitely recommend going over the exercises with your child, however, for the insights you can gain, and also to model your own responses to the questions or examples. The author says most kids with anxiety disorders benefit from seeing a counselor, and that this book is intended as a companion to therapy so that parents can help their kids at home. We are not seeing a counselor since I am still looking for one who is experienced with Asperger's Syndrome, but even working through it independently, my son has made some gains.