The Education System and How Mindfulness Could Make a Difference to Young People

03.4.2017

Why are children vulnerable to mental health issues?

In the UK, 1 in 10 children aged between 5-16 suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder. Childhood isn’t universally a time of innocence and delight. It can also be a time of stress and trauma and it makes sense to begin teaching children early in their lives simple techniques to deal with how they feel.

Family life, school, friendships, and social networks can cause stress for any child. In most cases these stresses are manageable. But sometimes they become toxic. Work from Harvard has shown that toxic stress in childhood can damage learning, behaviour, and health throughout one’s lifespan.

In the Harvard study, three different states of stress were identified: positive stress – brief increases in heart rate and mind elevations in stress hormones, tolerable – serious temporary stress responses supported by a loving relationship and toxic – prolonged activation of stress response system in the absence of protective relationships.

Why teach mindfulness to kids?

Toxic stress is exacerbated by the absence of an adult support system. No matter how vigilant schools and communities are, sometimes it’s difficult to recognise when a child isn’t being supported. By teaching children mindfulness, one empowers them to look after their own mental health.

Some schools already use techniques - such as ‘breathing breaks’ to incorporate mindfulness into the daily routine and help kids cope with the difficulties they have. This practice could be much more widespread.

Does mindfulness work as part of the school day?

One interesting study looks specifically at the how children responded to practicing mindfulness at school. 246 pre-adolescent and adolescent children were asked to self-assess their social and emotional competence. Teachers also assessed the children in those areas. The children then engaged in some daily mindfulness attention training daily.

At the end of the program, the children and teachers carried out another assessment of social and emotional competence. The results showed an increase in optimism and socially competent behaviours. With pre-adolescent children, the results were more positive, showing the earlier we implement mindfulness, the better the effects. Teachers in the study also commented on how easy it was to implement the practice into daily activities.

Mindfulness is a practice we can help children to adopt early in life to develop coping mechanisms for dealing with how they feel. There is overwhelming evidence that mindfulness works and hopefully in the coming years it will be more readily adopted by schools and communities to help support young people.

Mindfulness training can be a first-line defence for children against toxic stress so they can live a long and healthy life.

To learn more about mindfulness training contact michael@mindfulnessworks.com or call (+44) 01223 750660