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Reducing Stress in the Classroom due to Trauma

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Reducing Stress in the Classroom due to Trauma

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Houston Elementary School social worker Darryl Webster speaks with Nickolas Armstrong during a town hall at the school. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

One morning before math, the fourth-graders took a little vacation. To soft music, they walked through woods, climbed a mountain and lifted off with imaginary wings, flying over an ocean, a gentle breeze on their faces. One student saw a school of fish; another spotted a rainbow.
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"I see it!" the others piped in, their eyes squeezed tight. "I see it, too!"

With the sound of a chime, they were back in their yellow-and-blue school uniforms in a classroom overlooking a blighted neighborhood that has been beset by violence this spring, including two separate slayings of teenage boys at a nearby Metro station.

Like a growing number of schools nationwide, Houston Elementary in Northeast Washington is using mindfulness and other therapies to help children manage the stress they encounter in their daily lives.

Neurological research shows that traumatic experiences such as being abused, witnessing a violent crime or even living in a neighborhood where crime is pervasive can transform the developing brain. They alter the chemical balance, making it more difficult for children to concentrate, create memories and build trusting relationships - all fundamental skills for performing well in school.

The research is motivating educators to rethink zero-tolerance discipline policies that punish kids for outbursts that can be signs of trauma and to rally support for efforts to bring more mental health care into schools, where students and families have ready access to them.

"The brain cannot focus when it's not calm," said Susan Cole, a Harvard Law School professor and director of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, which advocates for "trauma sensitive" schools. "Children have to feel safe enough to learn."

"Toxic stress" in the classroom: How a public-health approach could help

After eight years of intensive reforms, an infusion of new teachers and an overhauled curriculum, academic performance remains very low in dozens of the District's schools, mostly in parts of the city where children are the most vulnerable. At Houston, 5 percent of students met grade-level expectations last spring on new math tests, and 1 percent performed at grade level in reading.

D.C. Council member David Grosso (I-At Large), chairman of the education committee, said trauma is a "root cause" of the achievement gap between rich and poor students, and he aims to shepherd more resources for mental health services in public schools. Services vary widely, and the city is assessing what is available school by school.

San Francisco has been using a "trauma-sensitive" approach since 2008, including training for students, their parents or caregivers, and school staff. This year, Boston received a federal grant to hire trauma specialists to work in 10 public schools.

At a town hall meeting this month, Houston Principal Rembert Seaward asked the students gathered in the cafeteria how many knew someone who had been shot. More than half of the children raised their hands. Anxiety has been running high in the neighborhood in recent months since one teenager was shot and killed at the Deanwood Metro station and another was fatally stabbed there two weeks later.

"It's been shooting after shooting after shooting," said Denise Robinson, a Houston mother.

She tells her second-grade son, Tevin, that the noises outside his window are fireworks, but he hears the sirens and is often anxious and worried about his family's safety.

He doesn't like to go outside and he clings to her when she gets ready to leave, she said. Some days, he resists going to school. "He thinks he's not coming home," she said.

Excessive stress can have lasting effects. A landmark study in 1998 involving 17,000 adult patients from Kaiser Permanente found that those who had experienced more adversity in childhood, through experiences such as having a parent with mental illness or drug addiction, were far more likely to suffer from poor health later in life, including depression, heart disease, obesity and cancer.

Adverse experiences are common in the general population, with about two-thirds of those surveyed having at least one. But they are far more common in poor neighborhoods such as Deanwood.

When Seaward came to Houston three years ago, he was struck by the level of stress he found at the school.

"The kids here, something was different," he said. "They did not seem like children. They seemed like they had to grow up quick."

Stress has many sources for Houston families. There are stresses associated with being a teenage parent or living with three generations in a one-bedroom apartment or having a parent incarcerated.

For Akilah Foster and her two young children, stress is waking up at a hotel in Maryland and taking three buses and a Metro train to get to school because they are homeless.

Losing her apartment last winter sparked a fighting instinct in Foster. The 23-year-old mother sought help from the school to find housing. She kept her son in after-school football to maintain a steady schedule when they were staying with friends and relatives. And she re-enrolled in school after she quit her restaurant job in Virginia because she did not have reliable transportation.

Some other families retreat under pressure, dogged by depression or drugs. They keep the doors closed when social workers from school come knocking.

In an effort to help all families and their children cope, Houston contracted last year with Turnaround for Children, a group that works to make schools more responsive to children affected by trauma.

The organization was founded by Pamela Cantor, a child psychiatrist who conducted a major study about the traumatic effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks among students at New York public schools. She found the most profound symptoms of post-traumatic stress were not in the neighborhoods surrounding Ground Zero, but in the poorest pockets of the city.

"We observed that poverty itself was an adversity in children's lives, a trauma," Cantor said.

In an initial meeting, Seaward brought a list of 34 students - more than 10 percent of the school's enrollment - who he thought had acute mental health needs.

This year, Turnaround brought in an outside mental health provider, including an additional social worker who has a full caseload of 20 families.

An instructional coach trained teachers about toxic stress and how the same heart-thumping surge of adrenaline that can save a life also can cause children to lash out at seemingly minor provocations.

In weekly sessions, teachers practiced setting clear expectations and maintaining a calm classroom and demeanor. The goal is to limit disruptions and de-escalate conflicts to give students a chance to learn to calm down.

School suspensions have been reduced significantly in the first year of the partnership, from 76 last year to 19 this year, and a survey showed dramatic improvements in how school staffers perceive the school's climate. Last spring, just a third of employees said they thought students felt physically safe in the building, compared with 94 percent this spring.

Experts say children can recover from adversity, particularly when they have an adult they can trust to help them manage the stress.

At Houston, that person for many children is Darryl Webster, the school's social worker.

Webster is 6-foot-6, generous with hugs and kind words, and he is busy from the moment he steps into the school. He is the person who responds if a student has missed class or arrived with a bruise on his face or a burn on his arm. He talks to students about the risks of sexting or using drugs, and he explains how to process feelings about the killings in their neighborhood.

One colleague called him the "Pied Piper," for the trail of children following him down the hall. They bring notes from teachers if they are disrupting class, details of a nightmare they had, a longing to be near him.

Read about Darryl Webster's early career as a social worker in this two-part profile here and here

D.C. Public Schools is investing in more training and strategies to respond to trauma, Webster said.

Webster has started a grief and trauma counseling group for children who have lost relatives, including several children whose loved ones were killed. He also conducts play therapy, which helps children process feelings they have a hard time addressing.

On a recent morning, Webster got a second-grader out of class who was depressed and not talking. They walked upstairs to a room full of toys. The boy picked out a board game, and the two sat on the floor and played until he was relaxed and smiling. Later, the student went to a table stocked with toy figures, and he picked out a pretend hypodermic needle and two cigarettes. He brought them over to the sand table, took out a plastic shovel and buried them in the sand.

Another day, Webster led four squirming little boys toting yoga mats into the library for a meditation session.

"This is the only free, easy thing I can give them," he said. "It gives them some control over their minds and bodies and things they feel they don't have control over."

They giggled at the New Age music on his cellphone, did somersaults and tried to roll themselves up in the mats.

Eight-year-old Tevin was there, the only one who was still and listening as Webster told the group to let go of their worries and fears and concentrate on their breathing.

Webster asked how he was feeling. "Happy," Tevin said.

He turned his face to the wall and closed his eyes, while Webster continued: "We are on a mountain. It's a beautiful sunny day. Now take out your wings and fly."

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To manage the stress of trauma, schools are teaching students how to relax

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Toxic stress is a barrier to learning, educators say, and often affects students living in poverty.

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Closing the so-called achievement gap between poor inner-city children and their more affluent suburban counterparts is among the biggest challenges for education reformers. The success of some schools' efforts suggests that meditation might significantly improve children's school performance - and help close that gap.

In 2007, James Dierke, then the principal of the Visitacion Valley Middle School in a troubled neighborhood in San Francisco, was determined to improve both the quality of education and student behavior in his school. He partnered with the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education to develop a Quiet Time Program for his school. The program, which had initial funding from the David Lynch Foundation, involved introducing two 15-minute periods of quiet into the school day. During those times, students could either practice Transcendental Meditation, which is taught as part of the program, or engage in other quiet activities like silent reading.

A major factor preventing underserved children from learning is the stress they encounter on a daily basis - from factors like poverty, deprivation, lack of steady parental input, physical danger and constant fear. Research shows that chronic stress can impair healthy brain development and the ability to learn, and that Transcendental Meditation, a stress-reducing technique that involves thinking of a mantra, can reduce stress and its manifestations - for example, anxiety, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Mr. Dierke wondered whether meditation might reduce students' stress levels and help them learn.

Over the next three years, Visitacion Valley's suspensions dropped by 79 percent, attendance rose to 98 percent, and students' grade point averages rose each year. Of even greater interest, the increase in G.P.A. for the lowest performing demographic was double that for the overall student group.

Anecdotally, favorable feedback poured in from both students and staff members. One seventh grader at Visitacion Valley said, "I used to be really fidgety, couldn't stay in my seat for very long. Now, after meditating, I can sit down for a whole class without standing up." Barry O'Driscoll, the school's director of physical education for the past 14 years, said, "In the first seven years of my tenure, the school was dominated by stress and fighting." But in the last few years, he said, "we have had very few fights."

One other middle school and two high schools in the Bay Area adopted the program. And a 2015 review of the program, issued by the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education in collaboration with the San Francisco Unified School District research department, had more good news.

The results of 17 studies conducted to date in the Bay Area, varying in duration from three months to one year, showed benefits across parameters including reduced stress, increased emotional intelligence, reduced suspensions, increased attendance and increased academic performance.

Although controlled studies are difficult to perform in an academic setting, collectively the results of the Bay Area studies are encouraging. Two controlled studies have been published so far; others are in submission for publication. In one, the effects of the Quiet Time Program, conducted over half the academic year, were evaluated in public middle school students performing below proficiency level. Annual math and English scores improved in the students who meditated, while they declined in those who didn't meditate. Given that the students in the study were performing below par at baseline, these results are promising.

The second controlled study, authored by WestEd, an independent evaluator, found that after seven months of the Quiet Time Program, ninth grade students who meditated showed a significant decrease in anxiety and a significant increase in resilience compared to nonmeditating students. In addition, meditating students reported sleeping better as well as higher levels of self-confidence and happiness.

It would be naïve to think that meditation alone could erase the effects of the many factors, like poverty, that are barriers to educational achievement. But Quiet Time is a relatively inexpensive intervention that teachers and students enjoy and which preliminary data suggest is effective.

And although this program has focused on schools in low-income areas, adolescents from middle-class and affluent families could benefit from stress reduction as well. Why shouldn't all our students have access to meditation?
Norman E. Rosenthal is a psychiatrist and the author of "Super Mind: How to Boost Performance and Live a Richer and Happier Life Through Transcendental Meditation." Related:
Sign up for the Well Family newsletter to get the latest news on parenting, child health and relationships with advice from our experts to help every family live well.

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Using Meditation to Help Close the Achievement Gap

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Closing the so-called achievement gap between poor inner-city children and their more affluent suburban counterparts is among the biggest challenges for education reformers. The success of some schools' efforts suggests that meditation might significantly improve children's school performance - and help close that gap.

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ECET2 Powerpoint Presentation

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The Hawn Foundation

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Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education

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The Hawn Foundation - The MindUp Program

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Mindfulness in the Classroom  YoutubeVideo Examples

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Mindfulness in the Classroom  YoutubeVideo Examples

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This video shows the Mindful Schools curriculum action. Mindful Schools (http://www.mindfulschools.org) offers adult courses to learn mindfulness, and how to teach it to children. We have taught mindfulness to over 18,000 children through direct-service programs, and our trainees impact more than 10,000 children each year. For more information, please visit http://www.mindfulschools.org.

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There's no shortage of mindfulness and meditation apps these days, promising to help you combat anxiety, sleep better, hone your focus, and more. We scoured the app stores to find the most popular, educational, and easy-to-use mindfulness apps that are available for free.

1) Insight Timer

Available for iOS and Android

Insight Timer is one of the most popular free meditation apps out there, and it's easy to see why. The app features more than 4,000 guided meditations from over 1,000 teachers-on topics like self-compassion, nature, and stress-plus talks and podcasts. If you prefer a quieter meditation, you can always set a timer and meditate to intermittent bells or calming ambient noise.

Right from the beginning, the app feels like a community; the home screen announces, "3,045 meditating right now / Home to 1,754,800 meditators." After you finish a meditation, you'll learn exactly how many people were meditating "with you" during that time; by setting your location, you can even see meditators nearby and what they're listening to.

Insight Timer doesn't recommend step-by-step sequences of meditations to follow; it's more like a buffet.

Despite its extensive collection, Insight Timer doesn't show you a list of teachers-which would be helpful, especially since they feature experts like Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, and Sharon Salzberg. And Insight Timer doesn't recommend step-by-step sequences of meditations to follow; it's more like a buffet. But these drawbacks hardly matter in the face of all the tempting choices.

2) Aura

Available for iOS and Android

Aura is a meditation app with a simple premise: Every day, you get a new, personalized, three-minute meditation. The same meditation never repeats; according to cofounder Daniel Lee, Aura's teachers are constantly recording new tracks.

To personalize the experience, Aura initially asks about your age and how stressed, optimistic, and interested in mindfulness you are. The daily meditation that appears also depends on your mood: If you're feeling great, Aura might suggest "Your Brilliant Heart;" select stressed, and you might get "You Have the Power." If you like the day's meditation, you can save it to your library for later listening.

Aura claims to target stress, anxiety, and depression. If a short meditation isn't enough, you can also listen to relaxing sounds or try their Mindful Breather feature, where you synchronize your breath to an animated circle that gently expands and contracts-surprisingly effective. The home screen encourages you to jot down something you're grateful for, another tool for well-being.
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Aura is straightforward and sparse, but that's part of the beauty. Particularly if you're just getting started, or you don't have lots of time to meditate, the simplicity of one meditation a day could be just what you need.

3) Omvana

Available for iOS and Android

Sleek and image-heavy, Omvana is a beautiful meditation app created by personal growth company Mindvalley. Its library contains thousands of meditations, and about 75 of those are free, from "Laser Focus" to "Cat's Purr."

According to cofounder Vishen Lakhiani, about 50,000 people around the world meditate to their popular "6 Phase Meditation" every morning, which is recommended for intermediate practitioners. (Beginners are encouraged to start with an eight-minute "Day 1" session.) The "6 Phase Meditation" guides you through different practices over the course of 20 minutes, including forgiveness, gratitude, and connection.

When you first download Omvana, your library includes about 10 meditations; to add more, it's necessary to navigate over to the store, and then click on Top Tracks > Free or Categories > All free. Once you find a meditation you like, clicking the "Free" button will add the track to your library.

Like Insight Timer, Omvana is more of a grab bag than a guided learning experience. And much of its library is off-limits to the free user. But if you're looking for a solid morning meditation, or you're overwhelmed by all the choice on Insight Timer, you might enjoy Omvana.

4) Stop, Breathe & Think

Available for iOS and Android

If other meditation apps expect you to dive right in, Stop, Breathe & Think wants to help you get acquainted with mindfulness first. A section called Learn to Meditate explains what mindfulness is, why it's beneficial, and what to expect when you press play on your first track. It even covers some of the neuroscience of mindfulness and the physiology of stress, in case you're still skeptical.

If other meditation apps expect you to dive right in, Stop, Breathe & Think wants to help you get acquainted with mindfulness first.

Then, it's time to get started. Stop, Breathe & Think features nearly 30 free sessions, many of which come in different lengths (and different voices-from placid Jamie to friendly Grecco). Most of them are short, up to 11 minutes, and you can choose to work around themes like Breathe, Connect with Your Body, or Be Kind. Or, simply set a meditation timer and find calm amid the silence or relaxing forest sounds.

A progress page keeps track of how many days you've meditated in a row and your emotions, which you can record before and after each meditation. Plus, you can earn cute stickers: As a newbie, I've collected "Good Start" and "Tick Tock of Presence." Stop, Breathe & Think is ideal for people who need some more structure and motivation to jumpstart their meditation habit.

5) Calm

Available for iOS and Android

The moment you open the Calm app, you might feel a sense of...calm. Relaxing sounds of falling rain play automatically in the background, but you could also opt to be greeted by a crackling fireplace, crickets, or something called "celestial white noise."

The relaxation continues with Calm's free meditations, a smaller selection than several of the apps above-16 in total, some of which come in different lengths, from 3-30 minutes. You can start off with 7 Days of Calm, or try their sessions on Loving-Kindness, Forgiveness, or the Body Scan. Plus, like many other apps, you can set a timer for silent meditation or meditate to intermittent bells. For nighttime relaxation, Calm features four free " sleep stories ": bedtime stories for adults on everything from science fiction to scenic landscapes to help you transition into slumber.

Unfortunately, some of the most interesting-sounding sessions, like Commuting and Emergency Calm, are locked unless you subscribe. (Calm's subscription costs $4.99 per month when you buy a year-one of the cheapest out there if you decide to make the investment.)

The Trouble with Mindfulness Apps

Shift Your Mood, Shift Your Habits

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Five Free Mindfulness Apps Worthy of Your Attention

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There's no shortage of mindfulness and meditation apps these days, promising to help you combat anxiety, sleep better, hone your focus, and more. We scoured the app stores to find the most popular, educational, and easy-to-use mindfulness apps that are available for free.

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Teaching Channel: Teaching Mindfulness in the Classroom, video

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Teaching Channel: Teaching Mindfulness in the Classroom, video

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Social Emotional Health is important for all classrooms. Learn how you can build social emotional lesson plans, and integrate social emotional components into subject specific lessons.

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Low Income Schools See Big Benefits in Teaching Mindflness

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Low Income Schools See Big Benefits in Teaching Mindflness

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Low-Income Schools See Big Benefits in Teaching Mindfulness | KQED

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Studies of mindfulness programs in schools have found that regular practice — even just a few minutes per day — improves student self-control and increases their classroom participation, respect for others, happiness, optimism, and self-acceptance levels.

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Slowing Down to Learn: Mindful Pauses That Can Help Student Engagement

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Slowing Down to Learn: Mindful Pauses That Can Help Student Engagement

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When I introduce this idea to teachers, I often hear concerns that they will be wasting valuable time doing nothing. It's important to recognize that during the pauses, you and your students are not "doing nothing." Your students may be considering several alternatives; they may be mulling a picture over in their mind; they may be making associations, comparisons, and contrasts. They may be trying to drudge up the right word from their vocabulary. When we give them this time, their processing becomes richer, deeper, and more abstract. When you rush through a lesson, you may deliver content more quickly and efficiently, but your students may not absorb the content very well, if at all.

The added bonus of these pause punctuations is that they give us as teachers a few moments to practice mindfulness. When this becomes an intentional part of our lessons, we can take the time to notice our body in space, the whole classroom, each student, and the small details that surrounds us, in the present moment. We give ourselves a short break-a micro-vacation from the constant activity of a busy classroom.

We can use the time to tune in to ourselves and our students. We can ask ourselves, "How am I feeling right now? How are the students feeling? What's happening right now? What do my students need? How can I explain this better?" By taking mindful pauses, we are modeling mindful behavior for our students and letting us all have some time to process the information we are exploring together.

Typically we pause after we ask a question and before we call on someone to answer. Most of the time, this pause is only about one second long. Students who process information quickly are at an advantage under these conditions. They tend to be the ones who always raise their hands immediately. While the speedy students are answering the question, the slower students are still trying to process the question, so they may not hear and comprehend the answer or be able to assimilate it into their existing knowledge. If the quick pace of the session continues, some students may feel left behind.

However, educational researchers have discovered that if the pause between the teacher's question and the student's answer lasts between three and five seconds, significant changes occur in student behavior (Rowe, 1987). Students are more likely to respond appropriately to the questions, answer the questions correctly, and offer longer and more complex answers. There are fewer "I don't know" or non-answer responses. Over time, many more students show higher levels of engagement (Honea, 1982; Swift & Gooding, 1983) and achievement test scores and school retention levels increase (Tobin & Capie, 1982).

Wait time has a positive effect on teachers as well. With conscious use of wait time, teachers' questioning strategies become more varied and flexible, and they ask follow-up questions that require more complex information processing and higher-order thinking (Casteel & Stahl, 1973; Rowe, 1972; Stahl, 1990; Tobin, 1987).

Robert Stahl (1990) identified eight categories of wait time. When we formally introduce wait time, these periods of silence are trans- formed from periods of awkwardness into valuable moments of silence. The first category is the type of wait time we've already discussed: the time between a teacher's question and the student's answer. The other seven are as follows:

Within-student's-response pause time. This is a three-second or longer pause that occurs when a student pauses or hesitates during the process of delivering a response to a teacher's question. Teachers tend to interrupt students when they are thinking through their answers and take time to pause. However, when given the time, students often follow these periods of silence by successfully completing their responses.

Post-student's-response wait time. This is a pause after a student has finished a response and other students are considering adding comments or reactions. This gives the other students time to think about what was said and to decide if they have anything to add.

Student pause time. This is a pause after a student has initiated a question, statement, or comment but doesn't complete the thought. It may seem strange to formalize this type of pause, but this situation arises more often than we might realize because the tendency is to ignore the question rather than allow for a pause. This happens to me a lot. I have a thought, idea, or question. I'm getting ready to tell someone, and my mind goes blank. I can't remember what I was going to say. When this happens to one of our students, we can give ourselves and the student a little time to recover, rather than just letting it drop.

Teacher pause time. This is a pause that the teacher intentionally initiates to consider what is happening, appraise the situation, and consider the best course of action. A particularly beneficial time for a teacher to pause is when a student has asked a question and the answer requires a complex answer. Taking time to consider how to frame the answer can improve student learning.

Within-teacher-presentation pause time. This is a pause that the teacher intentionally initiates during lecture presentations or other extended periods of content output. The teacher intentionally stops the flow of information to give students three to five seconds of silence to absorb the information and to consolidate their thinking. This type of pause requires no response from the students; it's simply processing time. Using silence this way, teachers can chunk their content into bite-sized pieces to help students absorb and process the information better.

Student task completion work time. This is pause time intended to allow students to complete an academic task that demands undivided attention. The length of the pause should be related to the time it takes to complete a task. The challenge involved in this type of pause is how to handle the variation in completion time among students. If students learn the value of pausing and some of them finish early, they can use the time to extend their thinking about the subject in some way.

Impact pause time. This is the use of pause time to create impact or drama. When we pause, we can create a mood of anticipation. A dramatic pause can generate feelings of suspense and expectation.

Wait time can be challenging. Many of us get so excited about sharing our own thoughts and ideas that we tend to interrupt students, leaving no space in the discussion for students to process information and respond thoughtfully. In the skill-building practices at the end of this chapter, you will learn more about how to apply wait time in your classroom.

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Slowing Down to Learn: Mindful Pauses That Can Help Student Engagement | KQED

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When I introduce this idea to teachers, I often hear concerns that they will be wasting valuable time doing nothing. It's important to recognize that during the pauses, you and your students are not "doing nothing." Your students may be considering several alternatives; they may be mulling a picture over in their mind; they may be making associations, comparisons, and contrasts.

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New York Times Article

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It's long been known that meditation helps children feel calmer, but new research is helping quantify its benefits for elementary school-age children. A 2015 study found that fourth- and fifth-grade students who participated in a four-month meditation program showed improvements in executive functions like cognitive control, working memory, cognitive flexibility - and better math grades. A study published recently in the journal Mindfulness found similar improvements in mathematics in fifth graders with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. And a study of elementary school children in Korea showed that eight weeks of meditation lowered aggression, social anxiety and stress levels.

These investigations, along with a review published in March that combed the developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience literature, illustrate how meditative practices have the potential to actually change the structure and function of the brain in ways that foster academic success.

Fundamental principles of neuroscience suggest that meditation can have its greatest impact on cognition when the brain is in its earliest stages of development.

This is because the brain develops connections in prefrontal circuits at its fastest rate in childhood. It is this extra plasticity that creates the potential for meditation to have greater impact on executive functioning in children. Although meditation may benefit adults more in terms of stress reduction or physical rejuvenation, its lasting effects on things like sustained attention and cognitive control are significant but ultimately less robust.

A clinical study published in 2011 in The Journal of Child and Family Studies demonstrates this concept superbly. The research design allowed adults and children to be compared directly since they were enrolled in the same mindfulness meditation program and assessed identically. Children between 8 and 12 who had A.D.H.D. diagnoses, along with parents, were enrolled in an eight-week mindfulness-training program. The results showed that mindfulness meditation significantly improved attention and impulse control in both groups, but the improvements were considerably more robust in the children.

Outside of the lab, many parents report on the benefits of early meditation. Heather Maurer of Vienna, Va., who was trained in transcendental meditation, leads her 9-year-old daughter, Daisy, through various visualization techniques and focused breathing exercises three nights a week, and says her daughter has become noticeably better at self-regulating her emotions, a sign of improved cognitive control. "When Daisy is upset, she will sit herself down and concentrate on her breathing until she is refocused," Ms. Maurer said.

Amanda Simmons, a mother who runs her own meditation studio in Los Angeles, has seen similar improvements in her 11-year-old son, Jacob, who is on the autism spectrum. Jacob also has A.D.H.D. and bipolar disorder, but Ms. Simmons said many of his symptoms have diminished since he began daily meditation and mantra chants six months ago. "The meditation seems to act like a 'hard reboot' for his brain, almost instantly resolving mood swings or lessening anger," Ms. Simmons said. She believes it has enabled him to take a lower dose of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug used to treat bipolar disorder.

Whether children are on medication or not, meditation can help instill self-control and an ability to focus. Perhaps encouraging meditation and mind-body practices will come to be recognized as being as essential to smart parenting as teaching your child to work hard, eat healthfully and exercise regularly.

To learn some meditation techniques you can teach your child, read Three Ways for Children to Try Meditation at Home.
Related: Interested in more Well Family? Sign up to get the latest news on parenting, child health and relationships with advice from our experts to help every family live well.

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It's long been known that meditation helps children feel calmer, but new research is helping quantify its benefits for elementary school-age children. A 2015 study found that fourth- and fifth-grade students who participated in a four-month meditation program showed improvements in executive functions like cognitive control, working memory, cognitive flexibility - and better math grades.

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Lesson Tips for Teachers

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The phone rang, and I noticed that it was a number I needed to take.

I was rushing out of the subway, bundled against the cold, my eyes darting around for a place I could duck into to be able to hear over the cavernous echo of the concrete halls.

Dunkin' Donuts-perfect.

I leaned against the counter, gingerly balancing my bags on my knee off of the grime smeared floor, and pulled off my mittens to talk.

"Hello, this is Amy."

"Hi, it's Ms. Smith, do you have a minute?"

It was the guidance counselor at one of the schools that is bringing Mindfulness and Cultural Development Teen Program.

Ms. Smith usually doesn't take time for pleasantries or to set the stage.

I wondered what was up. This school-while serving a high percentage of students who qualify for free lunches-ranks among the top in the State for academics. They pride themselves on disciplined, smart, high achieving students and have a zero tolerance for rudeness, violence, truancy, and other behaviors that are endemic in most Philadelphia inner city schools.

We ran through the specifics of start dates, schedule anomalies, and school needs, paring the program back from 12 sessions to 8. While Siddhartha Gautama recognized the time needed to train the mind and had students take a 3 month intensive rains retreat every year, now we're sowing seeds for deeper resiliency in whatever short time we can get. For these teens, 8 class periods is practically an eternity.

Then came the real reason for the call. "Before you start, I also wanted to tell you a little about these kids...." Apologetic and embarrassed, she started to lay out the virtues of the school and delicately imply that the double classes I was to teach mindfulness to were not representative of the school.

I cut to the chase. "You mean they have a bad case of Senioritis? Ready to be out of school, don't need to listen to anyone, don't bond together as a group, cynical about everything just because, with a prove-it-to-me-first attitude?"

She breathed a sigh of relief. I knew what she was talking about.

"I was probably just like them when I was in high school. I'll see what I can do to make some bridges for them."

If you've ever taught anyone, particularly adolescents, you know that you have a very small window to make your mark.

And if you don't grab their attention right from the start, the rest of the course is pretty much a wash.

This week was the first week of class. I was as nervous as the kids are on the first day of school. But I was also prepared. Teaching the depth and potential of the Mindfulness and Cultural Development tools is what I love to do. Having been immersed in hands on practice, peer-to-peer transformational coursework, and international education with mindfulness related tools for over 30 years, I am sitting on a wealth of experience and inspiration. My goal? I want to share the best of what's possible and let the kids loose to discover for themselves the relationship between inner strength and outer stability.

The bell rings and students more or less arrive. "If you could solve one personal problem instantly, what would that be?" I asked to a group of 60 restless adolescents.
"Too many thoughts all stuffed in my head, never stopping." "We're not going to learn to control our minds and we're not going be able to change our external experiences. What we can change is our relationship to our experience." I inform them.
Skeptical stares.

"Let's see who practices mindfulness and what settings. I don't usually do this but I thought you might like to get a brief introduction to who's doing what with mindfulness these days."

Off went the lights, on went the video. We watched a clip of 50 Cent talking to Oprah about meditating, Kobe Bryant and Russell Simmons on the power of the mindfulness practice, Anderson Cooper hooked up to an EEG showing in real time what happens in the brain when he thinks about something that makes him upset and when he drops into mindful awareness.

The mood started to thaw.

"Let's get a little practice in." The unmistakable undulating ring of Tibetan tingsha bells rolls through the double classroom.

"Focus on the sound. Track the texture, vibration, tone, color, impression, all the qualities of the sound until you can't hear it anymore. Let everything else go."

The room becomes still. Spacious. The static of background noise-inner and outer-those thoughts, worries, and distractions that separate us from each other, separate us from Life as it's unfolding fade.

A three-minute practice of sound meditation. Then we explore. Who felt a change? Who didn't? What's the nature and effect of shared focus? What is the quality of the space that letting go of thought can create? Is there frustration at not being able to understanding what you think is supposed to be happening?

"I've done a lot of long retreat in 30 years," I tell the students, "months in silence, silent eating, silent sitting, silent walking. No talking except for a few minutes every couple days to check in with one of the teachers, no phone, no book. I'm pretty much familiar with whatever comes up in the mind, frustration, boredom, sleepiness, anger, agitation, space, insight, wonder. There is no right answer to what's going to arise in the mind. We're just going to let it all be without making a problem out of any of it. That's one of the hardest tricks for anyone to learn."

Things start to loosen up. How to get academically-achievement oriented students to care about their relationship with the mind? We explore:

What made the difference between Nelson Mandela and his colleagues? We don't learn about it, but most of his friends who were sent to Robbin Island along with him went crazy. They couldn't take the emotional, psychological, as well as physical challenges year after year. It was inner strength, strength of heart and vision that brought Mandela through. I had the good fortune of meeting him several times in South Africa, he was a beautiful human being. This is what we're going to cultivate with mindfulness. It's not a magic pill, but if you're curious and you let yourself experiment, practice, explore, it can make all the difference when you really need it.

I share with them the time that proved to me that practice is worth it. A personal experience of extraordinary challenge, when my extended engagement with meditation indeed made all the difference, maybe even saved my life. That is another story, you can read about here.

I was just about finished, but not quite. The bell rang. No one moved as I showed them a photo from the story I had just recounted.

"We can't control all of our experience. Things happen. Some are objectively bad, frightening, disappointing. I want you to know that however anxious you get about tests, grades, or college, however angry you get at your mom, your teachers, the principal, however isolated you may feel, there is a way to relate to that experience that will keep your head above water. There is a way through. That's what we're going to learn."

They stood up. And started to applaud. As they filed out to their next class, some came and introduced themselves, shook my hand, some asked me questions, some just wanted to connect in whatever way, and some just moved on.

But we were in.

It's going to be a good semester. The experiences they'll have in the class, the tools they'll take with them in and of themselves won't change the economy, inner city violence, climate change, or college admittance pressure. But the teens who put them into play just might. The tools will light a spark in the heart. And that can become a fire.

Tools for Teen Mindfulness Teachers

As mindfulness educators, one of our biggest problems is giving our students something of lasting, life changing value in the few short minutes we have with them each week or each semester. Touching a student authentically, and pointing to the depth of the world of awareness world plants real seeds and gives them just enough to pursue on their own.

These three tools helped me connect with the class and set up the semester for a win:
1. Be candid and "out" the objections.
"My first week of High School, I knew I wanted to be finished as soon as possible, I heard that most of you feel the same way." We share the same understanding without condoning negative behaviors and without abdicating authority as the educator.
2. Start with a question and really listen to the answers. Use them during the class.
"If you could solve one personal problem instantly, what would that be?" Whatever the responses you get, refer back over the duration of the class to these and how a mindfulness practice can or cannot help.
3. Use contemporary video.
Find curated videos about uses of mindfulness in different settings that inner city teens enjoy. Cherry-pick a minute here or there from several shorts and give them the sense that there's a whole world of mindfulness, they don't have to fit into any particular milieu.
Author: Amy Edelstein Image: Max Klingensmith/Flickr

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Mindfulness in the Classroom: Lesson Tips for Teachers.

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The phone rang, and I noticed that it was a number I needed to take. I was rushing out of the subway, bundled against the cold, my eyes darting around for a place I could duck into to be able to hear ...

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Mindfulness Article

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"Mindfulness" is a buzzword popping up everywhere from the New York Times, prestigious science and education journals, to grade school and university curriculum. Headlines offer intriguing statements like, "Mindfulness meditation may have positive effects on stress, anxiety, and reshape the brain!" If you're curious about the bold claims of mindfulness but are not quite sure what mindfulness is, you've come to the right place.

Like the start of a fresh classroom unit, our first post in this mindfulness series begins at the root of Bloom's Taxonomy: defining what mindfulness actually is. What is its goal? We'll start in digestible terms and even try out a brief practice before introducing scientific definitions and research application in the classroom.

As we explore deeper questions in meditation and education research, see this post as a way to reground in common understanding of mindful practices.
What mindfulness is not:
One of my favorite teaching strategies is to offer learning by way of contrast. In other words, first identifying what mindfulness isn't. Thich Nhat Hanh, world-renowned peace leader and poet, reminds us of the simple opposite of mindfulness: forgetfulness.

"Most people are forgetful; they are not really there a lot of the time. Their mind is caught in their worries, their fears, their anger, and their regrets, and they are not mindful of being there. That state of being is called forgetfulness-you are there but you are not there."

If you're now laughing to yourself thinking about when you forgot where you placed your keys earlier this week, I mindfully invite you to come back to the present moment. Let's now draw attention to what mindfulness is.
What mindfulness is:
Mindfulness, put simply, is being aware of and allowing yourself to be in the present moment. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh:

"The opposite of forgetfulness is mindfulness. Mindfulness is when you are truly there, mind and body together. You breathe in and out mindfully, you bring your mind back to your body, and you are there. When your mind is there with your body, you are established in the present moment. Then you can recognize the many conditions of happiness that are in you and around you, and happiness just comes naturally."

Right now, take a moment to observe yourself where you are. You may notice yourself sitting with your chin resting on your wrist in a chair, breath long and slow. You might be standing on a subway platform scrolling through this article on a phone, breathing in and out quickly, the strap of your bag tugging at your shoulder.

Now try taking a full inhalation deep into the belly and into the chest, feeling the ribs comfortably expand. What does it feel like to inhale fully? Now exhale slowly and completely, lungs and belly hollowing comfortably. What does it feel like to exhale fully? Continue this practice of fully inhaling and fully exhaling for a few more cycles of breath. How does your body feel? Where are your thoughts focused? Allow yourself to observe your own thinking without judgment and come back to your breathing.

Perhaps just now from focusing attention on the in-breath and out-breath you feel a little different. Scan your body and mind. Perhaps you find yourself feeling less tense and a little less caught up in the future or past. The changes may be subtle or distinct.

In mindfulness, the breath often serves as a physical tool to help bring the mind and body back to the moment at hand. Breathing awareness - observing the length and sensations of your breath - is one way of practicing being mindful. Body awareness - noticing the physical position of and sensations within your body - is another way. Awareness of emotions and thinking as well as different forms of meditation such as guided visualization, insight meditation or tuning "inward," are also forms of mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness is historically rooted in Buddhist practices and Indian yoga, though evidence of mindful practices exists across cultures, religions, and even in acts of creating music, art, cooking, knitting, and exercise. As aptly suggested by Kabat-Zinn in framing mindfulness in the West, we are all inherently mindful as humans.

The scope of "mindfulness practices" is far-reaching and varied to meet the needs of children and adults, but the fundamental experience of all is similar: to practice being attentive to the present moment.
What is the goal mindfulness?
The intent of mindfulness is to relieve the natural human suffering that often occurs from maladaptive habits of which we're unaware. In other words, the more we do something with or without our awareness, the more connected the underlying neural pathways become, making it more automatic even if the habit doesn't make us feel good. For example, we might unknowingly rehearse self-critical thoughts that lead to negative emotions. Mindfulness is meant to help relieve us of those patterns by building awareness and practicing change.

Much of today's neuroscience and psychology research seeks to relieve the same symptoms of human suffering - anxiety, depression, indecision, stress, lack of focus, and memory loss. Mindfulness has therefore been adapted for scientific study as possible treatment for wellbeing in children and adults. Growing data is promising, allowing mindful practice to begin making its way into more schools than ever before.
Overview of Mindfulness Research
Researchers in mindfulness have adapted research-friendly definitions from Eastern practice. Ellen Langer, social psychologist and founding mindfulness researcher at Harvard University, defines mindfulness as "a process that cultivates sensitivity to subtle variations in context and perspective about the observed subject rather than relying on entrenched categorizations from the past." The operating definition used by Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine, student of Thich Nhat Hanh, and originator of the renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, is "the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment."

The last four decades have featured numerous neurological and psychological studies that support mindfulness practices in adult populations. In healthy adults, mindfulness meditation has been associated with increased attention and reduction of stress. In physically, mentally, and emotionally-demanding professions like teaching, such practices like breath awareness and meditation may help teachers sustain their own well-being as leaders in the classroom.

More inquiry is under way on the benefits of mindful practice for adolescents and children. One pilot study of note by Karen Bluth and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of the BREATHE mindfulness program as compared to a substance-abuse control program in ethnically diverse, including at-risk adolescents. Students in the mindfulness program showed more reduction in symptoms of depression and stress as compared to students in the control group. Such results suggest that mindfulness may support adolescents in psychological wellbeing, making more room for academic and social success.

More studies in mindfulness are emerging in elementary and early childhood settings as well. Lisa Flook and colleagues recently found that second and third graders who were less self-regulated showed more improvement in executive functioning after participating in an 8-week long mindful awareness program (MAP) as compared with those in the control group. Flook since teamed with Richard Davidson, known for his brain meditation research with monks, to develop a mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum (KC) to evaluate prosocial and self-regulatory behaviors in preschool children. The mindful kindness group showed greater gains in socio-emotional development and social competence as measured on report card grades by the teacher as compared to the control group, which demonstrated more selfish behaviors over time. Such findings suggest that mindfulness practice may developmentally appropriate not only for adults and adolescents, but for young children as well.

The present challenge in evaluating mindfulness research in academic settings is that most existing studies rely on teacher or parent observation of change in young students. As unbiased as we like to be as caregivers, our perceptions may be unintentionally skewed. Bias may also exist in adolescent reports of their own wellbeing.

With initial promise of mindfulness in children and young adults, however, more rigorous inquiry will likely involve magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional imagining to observe structural and functional changes in the brain. Given the jam-packed days we already face as teachers, corroborating or clarifying results from brain research could help inform time and type of mindful practice that is both reasonable and still beneficial for academic settings.

The journey of mindfulness in Western science and education may be just beginning, but its roots are deep and its practices simple. As research starts to stabilize in a crisper understanding and evaluation of mindfulness, implementation in the classroom will become clearer. For now, let's mindfully navigate the bumps together and trust in its unfolding.
References & Further Reading

1. Hanh, T. N. (2010). Thich Nhat Hanh on the Practice of Mindfulness. [Web Article]

2. Vago, D. R. (2014). Mapping modalities of self-awareness in mindfulness practice: a potential mechanism for clarifying habits of mind. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1307: 28-42. [Paper].

3. Langer, E., Cohen, M., & Djikic, M. (2012). Mindfulness as a Psychological Attractor: The Effect on Children.Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(5), 1114-1122. [Paper]

4. Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future.Clinical Psychology-Science And Practice, 10(2), 144-156. [Paper]

5. Lazar, S. W., Bush, G. L., Gollub, R., Fricchione, G., Khalsa, G., & Benson, H. (2000). Functional brain mapping of the relaxation response and meditation. NeuroReport, 11(7), 1581-1585. [Paper]

6. Bluth, K., Campo, R. A., Pruteanu-Malinici, S., Reams, A., Mullarkey, M., & Broderick, P. C. (2015). A school-based mindfulness pilot study for ethnically diverse at-risk adolescents. Advance online publication. [Paper]

7. Flook, L., et al. (2010). Effects of mindful awareness practices on executive functions in elementary school children. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 26(1), 70-95. [Paper]

8. Flook, L., Goldberg, S. B., Pinger, L., & Davidson, R. J. (2015). Promoting prosocial behavior and self-regulatory skills in preschool children through a mindfulness-based kindness curriculum. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 44-51. [Paper]

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Mindfulness in the Classroom: What's All the Buzz About?

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"Mindfulness" is a buzzword popping up everywhere from the New York Times, prestigious science and education journals, to grade school and university curriculum. Headlines offer intriguing statements like, "Mindfulness meditation may have positive effects on stress, anxiety, and reshape the brain!"

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Mindfulness through a child's eyes

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"Just Breathe" by Julie Bayer Salzman & Josh Salzman (Wavecrest Films)

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The last decade has seen a huge spike in secular applications of mindfulness, the practice of focusing our attention on our thoughts, feelings, and environment in the present moment. While the first wave of mindfulness-based programs were for adults, more recent efforts have targeted the well-being of children and adolescents; as a result, mindfulness programs in schools are becoming more and more widespread.

But until recently, "enthusiasm for promoting such practices [outweighed] the current evidence supporting them," to quote a 2012 review of the research on mindfulness practices with children and youth. That has changed in the past year with a spate of new studies: Researchers have been aggressively testing the effectiveness of school-based mindfulness programs, and they are starting to publish their results.

Here is a round-up of studies published just within the last few months.

1) Black, D. S. & Fernando, R. (2013). Mindfulness training and classroom behavior among lower-income and ethnic minority elementary school children. Journal of Child and Family Studies. Published online in advance of print.

© Mindful Schools
What did they study?
The curriculum of the Oakland-based Mindful Schools program, which serves low-income, ethnic-minority elementary school students. The Mindful Schools curriculum lasts five weeks, with three sessions per week, and focuses on mindfulness practices that help children pay attention, build empathy and self-awareness, improve self-control, and reduce stress. More than 400 students were evaluated in total in this study.
What did they find?
Immediately after the program ended, student behavior improved significantly in all four areas measured-paying attention, self-control, classroom participation, and respect for others-and these gains were maintained seven weeks later. Though this study is limited by the lack of a true control group-i.e., the researchers don't know whether other students at the school might have shown the same improvements, even without the Mindful Schools training-it is one of the largest studies of a school-based mindfulness program to date. Its findings have exciting implications for the potential of mindfulness training to benefit underserved elementary school students.

2) Klatt, M., et al. (2013). Feasibility and preliminary outcomes for Move-into-Learning: An arts-based mindfulness classroom intervention. Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(3), 233-241.
What did they study?
The feasibility of an eight-week mindfulness-based program called Move-into-Learning (MIL), administered to two classrooms of third graders at a low-income, urban elementary school in the Midwest. The MIL program involved a weekly 45-minute session, led by an outside trainer, that included mindfulness meditation, yoga and breathing exercises set to music, and positive self-expression through writing and visual arts. In addition, the two classroom teachers led shorter, daily practice sessions that reinforced those skills.
What did they find?
At the end of the eight weeks, teachers observed significantly less hyperactive behavior, ADHD symptoms, and inattentiveness among their students; these improvements were maintained two months later. In fact, students continued to show improvements in their attentiveness even after the program had ended. What's more, interviews with the participating teachers revealed that they found the program to be feasible to implement, appropriate and enjoyable for their classrooms, and beneficial for students' attendance and behavior. These promising preliminary results seem to warrant larger, more rigorous studies of the program.

3) Wisner, B. L. (2013). An exploratory study of mindfulness meditation for alternative school students: Perceived benefits for improving school climate and student functioning. Mindfulness. Published online in advance of print.
What did they study?
At-risk high school students' perceptions of the benefits of mindfulness meditation. Students attending an alternative high school in a low-income, rural area participated in half-hour guided mindfulness meditation sessions, offered flexibly at least twice per week for eight weeks.
What did they find?
After the program ended, students were asked what changes they had noticed since beginning to practice meditation. From eight types of potential benefit identified by the study's authors, those rated as most important by the students were stress relief and enhanced school climate, including through improved teacher mood. Although further study is needed, these results indicate that high-risk adolescents can sense the benefits of mindfulness meditation after just brief exposure to the practice.

4) Kuyken, W., et al. (2013). Effectiveness of the Mindfulness in Schools Programme: Non-randomised controlled feasibility study. British Journal of Psychiatry. Published online in advance of print.

© Mindfulness in Schools Programme
What did they study?
The acceptability and effectiveness of a British program for students ages 12 to 16 called the Mindfulness in Schools Program (MiSP). The MiSP curriculum consists of nine scripted mindfulness lessons, delievered weekly by trained classroom teachers. In this study, involving over 500 kids total, six schools receiving the MiSP program-and whose teachers had already been trained in the program-were matched with six similar schools where teachers had expressed interest in mindfulness but had not been trained in MiSP.
What did they find?
Compared to students in the non-MiSP schools, MiSP students reported significantly decreased depression symptoms immediately after the end of the program. In follow-up surveys conducted three months after the program ended, during the stressful summer exam period, MiSP students reported significantly less stress and symptoms of depression and significantly greater well-being compared to their non-MiSP counterparts. Also, the more frequently students reported using mindfulness practices, the better their scores were. These results indicate that the MiSP, and mindfulness in general, shows promise as a tool to bolster adolescent mental health, and possibly their academic achievement as well.

Although much of this research is in its early stages and the conclusions we can draw from it so far are limited, these four studies, conducted in different locations and with diverse types of students, suggest the great potential of mindfulness programs to improve the well-being of children and adolescents. Ideally, these and other researchers will next develop even more rigorous studies, comparing groups of students who are randomly assigned to participate in a mindfulness program with those randomly assigned to a group that doesn't receive the training. In the meantime, educators who are interested in mindfulness have many programs to choose from and an increasing amount of research to support their enthusiasm.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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Research Round-Up: Mindfulness in Schools

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The last decade has seen a huge spike in secular applications of mindfulness, the practice of focusing our attention on our thoughts, feelings, and environment in the present moment. While the first wave of mindfulness-based programs were for adults, more recent efforts have targeted the well-being of children and adolescents; as a result, mindfulness programs in schools are becoming more and more widespread.