Can Children Learn to Be Mindful?
There have been countless studies on mindfulness with adults, but what about children?
Is mindfulness for young kids and adolescents? If so, how do we introduce it and what are some effective ways of teaching it?
A literature review about using mindfulness with children, published in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry by Miles Thompson, DClinPsy and Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert, PhD, DClinPsy from the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, England looked at these questions and pointed out useful ways to incorporate mindfulness into practice with young people.
Dr. Thompson and Dr. Gauntlett-Gilbert had some helpful suggestions for tweaking common techniques to make introducing mindfulness a bit more child-friendly.
They found that unlike adults, children and teens need more of a reason “why” before getting started.
