Our resource office just sent out an email about separation anxiety, and the article said that some children show separation anxiety by withdrawing. I'll try to post some of it:

Separation anxiety can appear in many forms. And, it does not happen ONLY during the first two weeks of school. Most of your preschoolers will transition fine into the classroom. However, you will have a few that do not.

They may sit quietly on a chair and not interact. They may cry. They may have an all-out breakdown. What's a preschool teacher to do?

Symptoms
We have all seen, at least once, all out separation anxiety attacks! As in the scenario at the beginning of this article, you may have helped to "peel" a child off their parent or had a child (or two or three) who cried and/or screamed.
Sometimes we miss the silent cases in our classrooms. The children who sit by themselves and look at a book or a toy or nothing at all. They don't interact with the other children. They may hesitantly nod answers (if they respond at all) to the teachers.
Try your best not to let these children fall through the cracks. The more vocal children need more immediate attention at drop off time. However, be sure to spend some intentional time building trust with your silently anxious children as well once your group is calm.
Separation anxiety does not only happen at the beginning of the day. Children may respond to this anxiety when their parent or caregiver picks them up.
They may run to the parent and cry. They might act out by running around the room. They might become defiant and not acknowledge or respond to their parent at pick up time.

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