In this Healthed lecture, Dr Andrew Leech, a GP with a special interest in paediatric mental health, provides an update and an upskilling on the fundamentals of assessing paediatric anxiety. He will give an insight into the range of ways anxiety can present in children, the various triggers and how to differentiate between physiological and pathological anxiety. Importantly, he will also suggest simple strategies that can be tried as first-line therapy for the anxious child and their concerned parents.