The Mindful Child Summary

Summary:

After trying different methods to enrich special need students, the author felt that finally she found a method that works the best. The author in her own words said: “I wanted my students to be engaged, but like many teachers, couldn't identify what was standing in their way” (Judith Gaston Fisher, 2007). Studies have shown that to improve mindfulness, the focused awareness on the present moment, among adolescents, meditation practice can help to curb impulsivity. Also academic research has demonstrated that mindfulness programs conducted in school environment is very effective and it reduces the symptoms of anxiety and depression among adolescences. The revealing moment for the children to understand mindfulness is when they can

figure out that they are not paying attention. Once children can control their impulsivity through meditation; it generally helps them from doing things like getting hyper (jumping on the bed or couch, restlessly running around), bullying their younger siblings, stop being a spoiler in group activities. Research has linked the practice of cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, greater emotional stability and improved sleep quality, heightened feelings of compassion and greater success achieving weight-loss goals, among a number of other advantages.

"Mindfulness is a refined process of attention that allows children to see the world through a lens of attention, balance and compassion," Susan Kaiser Greenland wrote in her 2011 book “The Mindful Child”.

She also wrote, "When children learn to look at the world with attention, balance and compassion they soon learn to be in the world with attention, balance and

compassion."

Aspect I support or challenge:
I completely support the author’s argument that like adults, our children are also victim of the damaging effects of stress and anxiety.

Sometime parents bears some responsibility of pushing their children too hard, we all know the horror stories of “Tiger Moms”. I am strong believer of striking a balance between pushing children too hard and letting them learn and grow from their mistakes. I also strongly believe that certain children may benefit from stress-relieving practices that meant to calm their mind and help release physical tension. Teaching children mindfulness where they can focus and concentrate has huge benefits, a mindful child become more aware of his or her mood of and learns the ability to control it. With an increasing body of research supporting the health benefits of mindfulness training, for the past few years, advocates have been longing to see these kinds of programs become more prominent in school curricula. In a 2010 blog, Susan Kaiser Greenland, author of The Mindful Child, argued for nothing short of a “mindful revolution in education," stating that these mindfulness programs can help children develop good habits that will be able to develop compassionate and happier personality. The aspect the author didn’t touch is sometimes medications also help to reduce stress and depression among young adolescences. In some cases meditation alone is not sufficient to calm children’s who suffers ADHD, appropriate medication with coaching and guidance help

those special need children to focus better.

Meaning to me as an individual or teacher:
If a child’s mind is constantly moving around from one thing to another, then they’re not really paying attention to what they’re studying, and at best children will have a blurred and distorted picture of what they’re trying to learn. The worst outcome could be that this picture is so distorted that what’s learned is delusive or just simply inaccurate.
As a pre-school teacher, in our real classroom, we suggest the hyperactive or disobedient kids to calm down or take a deep breath and we tell them that they will be fine after doing so. If a child attempts or hit a classmate, we try to focus more attention to the aggressor and we tell them that what they are doing isn’t okay. The children who doesn’t follow the directions and keep their listening ears on, we send them in the cozy area to help them to relax by keeping their mind and body calm. Also, we tell the children to think what they done wrong. After 5 to 10 minutes; we go and talk to them by asking, “Do you know why you are in the cozy area? Are you ready to come and join the group or you needing more time to think?

My husband and I have realized that when we meditate via prayer, that this helps us become more patient and compassionate parents. We see a drastic change in our behavior, for example, when we’re stressed, especially in the morning to prepare our children for school, packing lunch, getting ready; we tend to lose patience very easily. When we meditate via our ritual Islamic prayer, we tend to be kind in all of our interactions with our 18, 12, and 5-year old children. It helps us to show more patience instead of having short temper and get immediately upset.

Conclusion:
Children can benefit from the education of relaxation practices are phenomenal. Mindfulness meditation can improve focus and increase test scores. A University of California study published recently found that a group of undergraduate students participated in a two-week mindfulness training program demonstrated heightened working memory and improved reading-comprehension scores on the academic aptitude tests (WildMind, Buddhist Meditation, 2013). In my mind the easy solution is always provide medication to improve concentration and mindfulness, reduce depression; but all medications have certain side effects; the best way to treat these symptoms through meditation. If meditation doesn’t work on certain number of children, medication could be given as a last resort where the life of the children or society they live are in danger.