Understanding How Anxiety Affects Struggling Readers
Understanding How Anxiety Affects Struggling Readers
Amie Grills collaborates with Texas researchers to explore solutions for students and teachers
Amie Grills is BU Wheelock’s associate dean for faculty affairs & research and a professor of counseling psychology & applied human development. A licensed clinical psychologist and researcher, she specializes in anxiety/stress, trauma, and related childhood difficulties (e.g., depression, behavioral difficulties). In addition, she has expertise in the development and evaluation of cognitive-behavioral assessments and interventions, including those conducted using web-based designs.
Most recently, Grills’ research has focused on a large-scale randomized clinical trial investigating the relationship between reading difficulties and stress/anxiety. This project is the culmination of over 15 years of collaboration with researchers from the University of Houston and the University of Texas-Austin (UT). It combines Grills’ experience in children’s anxiety with her colleagues’ experience with struggling readers. Drawing from her expertise delivering evidence-based, cognitive-behavioral treatments with anxious children, Grills developed the Strong Students Toolbox, which was then adapted to teach these important skills in 5–10 minute mini-lessons.
What are some of the findings from your recent work that you’re most excited about?
The ways teachers and students continue to use anxiety/stress program content outside of the intervention has been really exciting for us. For example, teachers who are implementing the intervention tell us that the students will talk about an exciting session to their friends outside of class. In some examples we have heard, students have shared different stress reduction techniques they learned with friends at lunch or in another class. In other examples, we have heard from the teachers themselves that they find themselves applying the strategies in their own lives.
This has confirmed that the students are both enjoying the lessons we developed but also applying them, and feeling confident to share the strategies with their peers. It also made us realize that the teachers could also benefit from the program, and that they may then more continually utilizing its components more broadly, in their classrooms or home.
What are some of the important findings from your work?
Anxiety and stress are really common, even in young kids, so it’s important that we can reach more kids with actual evidence-based approaches that they can use to manage those feelings. At present, finding and/or affording a qualified therapist who has received training in cognitive-behavioral therapy can be really challenging. By bringing these skills to kids in schools and via teachers who can deliver the lessons and also weave the underlying principles into their classrooms and broader lessons, we have an opportunity to make a real impact on a much broader range of youth.
In addition, we hypothesize that for struggling readers, helping them alleviate stress may be beneficial in such a way that they are able to focus more on their reading instruction and generally improve their reading skills over time.
Where is your research headed?
The study’s second cohort was suspended after receiving the first year of intervention due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are continuing to collect assessments to inform broader questions and for comparing with the first cohort of students who were able to receive the planned two full years of the program. We are also hoping to add a third cohort once the pandemic has ended.
We have submitted a grant that would also allow us to conduct an expanded trial of the program in order to better understand its efficacy. We are considering whether to conduct a similar trial integrating the Strong Students Toolbox into a mathematics intervention for students struggling in that domain, or whether to consider mechanisms for delivering the program within general education classrooms.