Mindfulness Schools, Make Mindful Youth
Emotional and mental health are often put lower on the priorities list when looking at the educational needs of students (Henriksen & Gruber, 2024). With mental health diagnoses on the rise in children schools are unable to ignore the mental health needs of their students. In order to retain information, students could benefit from emotional regulation support and curriculum within schools. Mindfulness-based interventions have been initiated in some schools and have been found to have a positive effect on a child's engagement and performance within the academic setting. Various programs and non-profits offer educational materials for teachers and other professionals who work with children so they can provide adequate and evidence-based support to children.
Mindfulness-Based Programs
Using mindfulness-based program in educational settings can improve school adjustment for students beyond just psychological (mental) benefits that are typically looked into. This includes social and behavioral functioning skills and overall being more mindful within students (Mettler et al., 2023). Teachers report improved externalizing (acting out, aggression, and rule-breaking) and prosocial behaviors (voluntary helping, sharing, or comforting of others) from this startegy (Sciutto et al., 2021). There are also more positive classroom outcomes and increased engagement between the teacher and students found following the use of mindfulness in schools (Sciutto et al., 2021). Various programs have been implemented to promote mindfulness in students. There is still a need for continued research on this as it is a newer idea for improving mental health in schools (Mettler et al., 2023; Phan et al., 2022). Not all schools implement mindfulness practices, but there are other solutions to support your child’s mindfulness in school. Sensory tools, equipment, and education for teachers and parents are ways to implement mindfulness into your child’s life. Below are some sites and sources that support awareness in ourselves, along with sensory tools and equipment we offer that could increase mindfulness in daily life.
How To Support Mindfulness As A Parent/Educator
Mindfulness encourages a person to purposefully pay attention and be nonjudgmental to oneself while considering moment-to-moment experiences. Mindfulness-based interventions impact multiple parts of one's well-being, including resiliency and mental health, through greater awareness of the present and acceptance of the situation (Phan et al., 2022). Being non-judgemental during mindfulness helps with accepting emotions as they are.
Here are sites with programs, educational videos/materials, and other supports.
Mindful Youth Institute: Their website offers a kid’s zone with videos and books, and resources such as parent classes, one on one mindfulness sessions, teaching strategies, books, podcasts, and blogs.
Mission Be: A nonprofit that offers education on mindfulness to parents, teachers, and children.
Embodied Teaching: Offers a masterclass in mindful awareness for teachers.
Mindfulness in Schools Project: Is a charity and global community of mindfulness educators that offers courses. Courses are written by teachers for teachers standing as the most established provider of training on mindfulness in schools.
Move mindfully: Work at the system level to create sustainable changes, with many organizations not having access to resources and tools to support the needs of children and help them thrive.
This Mindfulness Flower can be used in the classroom to bring children to the present moment before starting class, the day, or a task. It brings awareness to what they feel within themselves, what they see, what they hear, what they smell, what they taste, what they touch.
SENSE-ational Spaces Mindfulness-Based Support
We offer tools and equipment along with handouts and blogs that support your children’s success in schools
Handouts:
Blogs:
Sensory Equipment:
Permission to Pause Posters: that provide a break to move your body and re-regulate (regulation breaks)
Sound Machine: that provides a barrier to sounds with consistent noises that can increase attention and support regulation.
Oil Diffuser: has an 8-hour timer that can be utilized in school with scents like lavender to promote a calming atmosphere for children to learn in
Weighted Warmies: that supports focus and helps maintain attention on the present moment
Explore our equipment page, handouts, and blog to explore more ideas on our page to support your child’s success in school.
References
Henriksen, D., Gruber, N. (2024, March). System-wide school mindfulness: Addressing elementary students’ social-emotional learning and wellbeing. Frontiers in Education, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1272545
Mettler, J., Khoury, B., Zito, S., Sadowski, I., & Heath, N. L. (2023). Mindfulness-based programs and school adjustment: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of School Psychology, 97, 43–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2022.10.007
Phan, M., Renshaw, T., Caramanico, J., Greeson, J., MacKenzie, E., Atkinson-Diaz, Z., Doppelt, N., Tai, H., Mandell, D., Nuske, H. (2022, July). Mindfulness-based school interventions: A systematic review of outcome evidence quality by study design. Mindfulness, 13(7), 1591-1613. doi: 10.1007/s12671-022-01885-9
Sciutto, M. J., Veres, D. A., Marinstein, T. L., Bailey, B. F., & Cehelyk, S. K. (2021). Effects of a School-Based Mindfulness Program for Young Children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30(6), 1516–1527. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01955-x
