Childhood is a delicate stage, where the core of a person's social perceptions and interactions are formed. This is the stage where a person first develops a number of skills and grasps several concepts that would be vital to social survival in later stages of life. Developing an anxiety disorder or experiencing its symptoms can cause devastating damage to a person's mental development. Potential long-term effects might include stunted behavioral development and an inferiority complex.

At this stage, it is important for parents to know how to differentiate between fear and an actual anxiety disorder symptom. A child who's afraid of the dark or of loud noises is not exhibiting any sort of anxious behavior. Most people would attribute such things to the child's mind or imagination, and to the inability to adjust to one's environment. Shyness in social situations, such as the first day of school, can also often be excluded as a sign of a problem. However, when these fears and problems start to wear down on his ability to actually perform socially, then those might indeed be signs of child anxiety.

Child anxiety can sometimes be ignored completely by parents, as they tend to attribute it to the natural shyness and awkwardness of social interactions during childhood. An anxiety disorder symptom can be difficult to recognize amidst the myriad of social difficulties of early childhood, so parents would be better off trying to spot signs that the child is no longer behaving as he or she should. If, at any given time, the anxieties and fears are starting to impede on the child's development, then a professional should be consulted. Of course, knowing when child anxiety is present and impeding development can be difficult by itself.

Treatment for child anxiety, provided the parent has spotted an anxiety disorder symptom, is different from those in adults. For starters, most drugs are likely to be ruled out as child anxiety treatments because the metabolism of younger individuals differ from those of adults. Metabolism plays a major part in processing anti-anxiety medication. There might also be other unpleasant physical side effects that a child's body would be unable to deal with. There are treatments that don't require the use of medications, which tend to be the more popular option when helping kids deal with the anxiety disorder symptom.