Students who struggle with social phobias can often be so distracted by the surrounding context that they are unable to focus on their work in any meaningful way at all.  The mind is so caught up in what is happening with their peers and with teacher expectations for them that they have no bandwidth left to learn their actual academics, nor are the social preoccupations of any value to the student either.  Social phobia tends to get worse over time as the student moves from middle school into high school, where social preoccupations gradually become an increasingly important function of their lives.

Learning Differences often overlap with anxiety, and many in the field suggest that the two may even be inextricable.  When a student has a processing speed disorder, for example, the situation with academics can cause a great deal of stress, resulting in fears that often exceed the actual threat.  The student often feels self-conscious about their learning style, as well, compounding the issue presented in academics with social anxieties.  The results range from simple avoidance due to the discomfort to oppositional behavior and even school refusal in extreme cases.

Test anxiety is a prevalent condition for students today.  Worry about the results or performance on an assessment can be quite crippling.  The results can range from diminished scores to complete paralysis in the face of a challenging exam, especially a timed assessment.  Given the pervasive societal feedback that tests and exams are vital to life successes, these exaggerated fears can feel quite real.  Often re-setting and monitoring expectations is the key to unwinding these worries.  Gradual exposure to increasingly real simulations of the source of testing anxiety can facilitate incredible results over time.