Many children (and adults!) feel nervous about new things, and so much is unfamiliar about the start of the school year. Here, Tamar Chansky, Ph.D., author of Freeing Your Child from Anxiety, offers three ways to alleviate your child’’s concerns before he heads to a new classroom:

Remember last year

Help your child think back to other transitions he’’s made, and talk about how it went. How long did it take before school felt familiar last year? Does he think it will take the same amount of time this year? Remind him that trying new things is like getting into a swimming pool: They’’re uncomfortable at first, and then we adjust——it’’s how we’’re all built.

Normalize his fears

Remind your child that every student and even the teacher is feeling some worry about the new school year. Let him guess what they might be feeling and thinking. He’’ll find comfort —and relief —in knowing he’’s not alone.

Check the facts

Have your child tell you what he’’s worried about (maybe he’’s afraid the teacher won’’t be nice) and what’’s most likely to happen (teachers usually like him). Then give his worries a name, like Worry Bug or Disaster Man. Assigning a name to fearful thoughts helps a child separate them from their predictions of what’’s actually going to happen.