Mindfulness for Preschoolers
Did you know that mindfulness for preschoolers can help with executive functioning, academic skills and social skills? Researchers have explored this topic and have found that mindfulness techniques can be very beneficial when it comes to preschoolers.
What Does the Research Say About Mindfulness for Preschoolers?
There have been several studies that recognize the benefits of mindfulness for preschoolers.
Mindfulness Improved Executive Function Skills
One study followed a year long mindfulness program designed to enhance the self-regulation of prekindergarten and kindergarten students. The results indicated that after the one year, the students in the program displayed improvements in working memory and planning and organizing compared to the control group. At the end of kindergarten, the mindfulness group also had higher vocabulary and reading scores ( Thierry et. al, 2016).
Social-Emotional Benefits of Mindfulness
Another study investigated mindfulness and social-emotional development in preschoolers. The children who participated in the mindfulness intervention showed significant improvements in prosocial behavior, in the inhibitory processes of self-regulation and in the ability of perspective taking, particularly in its emotional and cognitive components ( Berti & Cigala, 2020).
Help for Self-Esteem and Empathy in Preschoolers
Following a mindfulness program for 30 preschool children, improvements were seen in the preschool children’s self-esteem and empathy ( Dehghani & Manshaee, 2020).
Teach Flexible Thinking and Delayed Gratification
Want to improve flexible thinking and delayed gratification in preschoolers? Mindfulness can help with this too! Following a 12-week mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum, the preschool children displayed greater improvements in social competence and earned higher report card grades in domains of learning, health, and social-emotional development (Flook et. al, 2015).
Mindfulness Activity Ideas for Preschoolers
Here are few simple mindfulness activities for preschoolers to help them to stay present and focused:
Deep Breathing Exercises – Children will be able to master certain deep breathing techniques better than others. Teach various deep breathing exercises to children so they can determine which ones are most beneficial. Give it a try with this FREE Bumble Bee Breathing Break. Download your FREE breathing break here (a tab will open in a new window). This is from the Breathing Breaks complete packet.
Give the children some time to learn how to do the bumble bee breathing. Make sure they understand the benefits to the exercise and try and keep it serious. Children can get silly easily so remind them to stay focused and mindful on their own breathing. Read more mindful breathing techniques here.
Practice visualization techniques. Bring your mind on a journey. Try this Imagination Action Journey.
Let the award-winning Self-Regulation Videos and Flash Cards, called Scooter & Me movement stories, help your kids/students become more physically fit, emotionally stable and learning able! And watch them thrive…
Taught by experts and developed with kids, these self-regulation video classes combine exciting stories with creative movement, yoga and Brain Gym®. Kids get the fun of acting out the story through movement – being a scooter, a jet boat, a storm, a butterfly, a lion and so much more – while learning easy-to-do, self-regulation techniques called Adventure Skills.
Adventure Skills are simple exercises with cool names and images, such as Monkey Wisdom and Humming Breath, that kids can use to calm and center themselves when angry, frustrated, confused, scared or sad.
This Self-Regulation Videos and Flash Cards Bundle includes 9 Videos & 16 Self-Regulation Flash Cards to provide you will everything you need to support your students/children in being physically fit, emotionally stable & learning able. FIND OUT MORE.
You can read more on Teaching Mindfulness to Children here.
Read about Feelings and Emotions Activities for Preschoolers.
References:
Berti, S., & Cigala, A. (2020). Mindfulness for Preschoolers: Effects on Prosocial Behavior, Self-Regulation and Perspective Taking. Early Education and Development, 1-20.
Dehghani, E., & Manshaee, G. (2020). Effectiveness of Training Child-Oriented Mindfulness on the Self-Esteem and Empathy of Preschool Children. medical journal of mashhad university of medical sciences, 62(5.1), 589-599.
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.
Thierry, K. L., Bryant, H. L., Nobles, S. S., & Norris, K. S. (2016). Two-year impact of a mindfulness-based program on preschoolers’ self-regulation and academic performance. Early Education and Development, 27(6), 805-821.
