Mindfulness is something that pretty much every field recommends. Therapists, counselors, neuropsychologists, teachers, soldiers, doctors, ballet dancers, football coaches, chefs, truly in almost every career that exist, you can find some of the top professionals talking about the benefits of mindfulness. Research has shown repeatedly that mindfulness is advantageous for all people but especially for the populations that are seen by SLPs.
Populations such as children with ADHD, autism, children who stutter, children with mental health disorders and so many others have research backing the benefits of a mindfulness practice. I also know it can be incredibly difficult at any age to find the patience, regulation, motivation and time to actually have a dedicated practice.
From my experience mindfulness/meditation is one of those habits that I have to introduce early with clients/students because it can take a really long time for many of them to understand it or see the value in using it. Mindfulness is a fairly abstract concept that requires a combination of skills and executive function development.
I think one of the simplest ways to explain mindfulness is to use the oh so popular flashlight analogy. Many SLPs use the analogy of a flashlight to explain attention. Dr. Amishi Jha explains it as, “a flashlight you can direct to whatever you choose”. We can use this idea as we talk about mindfulness. If we explain that we are often shining our flashlight outward, to the teacher, to a book, to our phones, to our friends, to our parents, mindfulness is when we shine the flashlight on ourselves. We take our flashlight and focus on our breathing, on our thoughts, on the present moment. Our flashlight stops moving around and searching for all of the things outside our bodies and minds. We work to keep our flashlight still inside our minds and simply notice what is lighting up inside of us.
As with all concepts I try (when possible) to start with a discussion, asking questions such as:
What does the word mindfulness mean to you?
Do you know anyone who uses mindfulness?
What do you see in your imagination when you hear the word mindfulness?
Have you ever sat and just breathed without doing anything else?
Why do you think mindfulness might be helpful?
Do you think practicing mindfulness would be hard and why?
Do you think anyone can practice mindfulness or only grown-ups?
Now the above explanation is of course for children who are able to sit and listen to a lot of information. Depending on their age and developmental level, many children can’t retain or process big heaps of abstract information. Or may still be working on attending to any tasks for longer than a few minutes. So for most students/clients, I will incorporate mindfulness techniques when teaching coping/calming strategies. Or I’ll start my session by saying something such as, “Phew I’m having a lot of emotions, I need my break. Let’s all take five (linked below) before we start”. Or I’ll mention my brain feels like it’s full of bees and I need to breathe for one minute and we will start the session using a breathing technique that has a set structure like tracing a shape. This type of quick breathing check in can also be part of starting a speech session. I’ll do this type of activity over and over and encourage my students/clients to join. As with all things, I will model, encourage, but never force.
I have broken down the materials into three sections, so hopefully no matter if you are a parent, an SLP, an educator, you can find something that works for you. The first section is building exposure and awareness, the last two sections will be in a following post, which will be explicit teaching and practicing resources.
Building Exposure and Awareness
When teaching calming/coping strategies, we know that it’s a process of trial and error. Especially given we must practice them when a child is regulated and often we don’t know if the strategy is effective until a child is disregulated. By using mindfulness strategies from the start, we build the child’s familiarity with concepts such as breathing, focusing on senses and pausing during intense feelings and noticing the sensations and emotions in the body without acting on them. Laying these foundations to build upon as the child grows and is ready for more concrete mindfulness practice.
Here is a list of some mindfulness calming/coping techniques I love to use. Of course I'm always adjusting and listening to the needs of each student/client. I started with ideas for the senses, touch, smell, sight, etc because it can be easy to only use one like touch and forget to explore the rest. I know I get set in patterns with what I like and need to be reminded that just because certain strategies don't work for me, doesn't mean they won't help someone else. I'm still surprised by what works for a student (or even an adult!) and part of introducing all sorts of techniques is allowing the kids to see that mindfulness isn’t just being still and breathing.
Sight/Visual calming strategies: bubble timers, calming videos, glitter bottles (made water, glue, glitter that you can shake and watch settle), lava lamps, going outside and looking around/activating the peripheral gaze. This might also include something like dimming the lights, having a special ‘glow light’ that is a lower brightness, or even an eye mask to remove light completely.
Smell: Having a child smell something and deeply breathing in the smell and notice how it makes them feel. I like to use seasonal (unlit) candles for this, but it can also be fun to bring in different spices from home or essential oils. You can even bring in foods for them to smell like coffee beans, tea, fruit, oils, hot sauce, etc. Parents at home this can be a great way to explore the kitchen with your children!
Touch: Tactile objects they can hold or squeeze e.g., pillows, stress balls, blankets, playdoh, therapuddy, tracing patterns in a sensory bin filled with dirt or beans or sand, touch something cold like ice or a cold washcloth on the neck, forehead or wrists.
Taste: For adults some therapists advise the use of sour candies and/or super cold water/ice to help when having a panic attack. For children we obviously have to be careful if they are disregulated about giving them anything to eat or drink. Cold water might be a helpful for some children. There is also ‘mindful eating’ which could be used as a multi-week therapy activity and target goals for describing, nonverbal working memory, forming sentences, describing, answering wh- questions, etc.
Hearing: Sometimes just using noise cancelling to block out sound can help, there are lots of different ‘color’ noises that some people find soothing such as brown noise, white noise, pink noise, etc. There is also music with binaural beats, or ones at certain frequencies, there are so many types of mediation music you can try.
Breathing Techniques: lazy eight, dragon breathing, box breathing, five finger are some of my favorites. I recently discovered this crabby breathing, which is adorable! Comment below your favorite breathing technique.
Yoga or stretching: Cosmic kids yoga is great for all ages, especially younger students. This video by Jessamyn Stanley is good for older students, adults and anyone new to yoga. She is a fantastic teacher (and fellow NC native!) and one of her goals is showing people that EVERY body can practice yoga.
Yoga in chairs: People with limited mobility, kids in wheelchairs or teletherapists don’t forget you can always lead students through stretching while seated. You can either do a video or simply incorporate movement into your sessions. This 5 minute video is designed for kids sitting or in a wheelchair and is really accessible for almost anyone.
Coloring: Coloring can be really relaxing to many, giving a kid dry erase markers and letting them color on the tables or your board, having fun things to color with like giant crayons, cool pens, those Buddha boards that use water, lots of options that allow a child to focus on one thing but is a little more active than just breathing. There are plenty of adorable coloring pages for free online, such as mandala pages, or pages with animals.
Part two is coming soon where I’ll share all sorts of resources for explicit teaching and ways to practice mindfulness directly with kids.
Comment below if you use any of what I have listed so far already in your practice or with your kids! Were there any mindfulness calming/coping strategies that you haven’t heard about before? Anything you want to add to the list?
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