Anxiety Activities for Teens: Handling Social Anxiety
This session includes anxiety activities for teens, helping older students understand social anxiety and how it can twist their thinking in moments like speaking up in class. They start with a guiding question, then discuss how to spot the specific triggers that set off a racing heart or worried thoughts. In a short game, students replay a brief interaction in steps to figure out what each person felt and where things went off track. The goal is to notice these patterns and build strategies that help them feel more ready.
Extension activity
- Skill
- Self-Regulation
- Goal
- Managing Stress
- Grade level
- Middle & High School
Get everything you need to teach the skill
These materials are part of a no-prep session designed by our clinical team, with all the structure, scaffolding, and support you need to teach included.
Engaging materials
Video lessonHandling Social Anxiety
In this video lesson, students learn how to work through social anxiety by identifying their triggers, organizing their thoughts, reframing worst-case thinking, breaking challenges into smaller steps, and challenging unhelpful thoughts.
- Extension activity
Handling Social Anxiety Journal
In this journal activity, students write about a time a social situation made them feel nervous or anxious and how they handled it, reflecting on strategies for managing social anxiety.
Plus everything you need to teach them
Warm-up
- Video: 4-7-8 Breathing2:13
- Video: Obstacles into Opportunities Visualization1:19
- Video: Yoga Pose Library
Session Opener
Guiding Question: How can social anxiety impact a person?
Practice
- Discussion Question
- Role-Play Activity
- Mini Game
How to use it with your students
- 1Watch Play the video lesson so students see the skill in action.
- 2Practice Try the skill together with a discussion prompt, role-play, or mini game.
- 3Extend Use the extension activity to help students carry the skill further.
What's Covered
In this lesson, students learned what social anxiety is and how it can lead to thoughts that feel bigger than the situation actually is, sometimes bringing on physical signs like a fast heartbeat or sweating. They practiced naming their own triggers and considering strategies like turning to a trusted person or writing down anxious feelings to think through them more clearly. Understanding these patterns can help students recognize anxious moments and respond to them with a plan.
Key Terms
- Social Anxiety
- Anxiety you feel about everyday interactions with people, like answering in front of the class or making small talk. It can spark untrue thoughts that make a situation seem bigger than it is, and even cause physical symptoms like sweating or a fast heartbeat.
- Triggers
- The specific situations that set off your anxiety, like being called on in class or making small talk at lunch. They are different for each person, so noticing your own helps you work through them.
Sample IEP Goal This Session Supports
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Managing Stress
Learner will recognize signs of stress in their own body or thinking (e.g., tight chest, racing thoughts, feeling overwhelmed) and apply a self-selected strategy (e.g., deep breathing, positive self-talk, taking a break) to manage the feeling in 4 out of 5 opportunities independently/given X prompt(s).
Send this tip home to support generalization
At home or in the classroom, when a student seems anxious before something social, you can ask what feels hardest about it and offer to help them name one trigger. Writing it down together often makes the worry feel more manageable.
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More Self-Regulation Activities
Frequently asked questions
Is this intervention free?
Yes, this ready-to-teach session on Handling Social Anxiety is free. You can access this intervention free for 14 days through the Everyday Speech Session Library. Every user gets three free sessions, but you can get more or extend your access by sharing the Session Library with friends and colleagues.
What ages is this for?
These materials are designed for middle and high school students.
What's included?
You'll get access to your choice of warm-up videos, a session opener, a core material on Handling Social Anxiety, three practice prompts, and an extension activity, Handling Social Anxiety Journal.
What skill does this intervention teach?
This ready-to-teach session is on self-regulation - more specifically, managing stress.
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