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…

What if we learned meditation at an early age? Could that possibly help buffer the inevitable stressful events in childhood as well later in life? This morning I was thinking, what if a mindfulness practice came as natural as say, multiplication tables or spelling?  What if it was taught in schools? Is there a chance that if children learned meditation it would be helpful for them in dealing with those “you’re so not-cool” messages from other kids? I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about Mindful Schools – a non-profit organization based in Oakland,CA that teaches mindfulness to children in…

One of my staff has a young daughter who is learning about meditation and breathing awareness. Four-year old Nadia will lie on her back, put a Snoopy stuffed animal on her chest, and try to rock Snoopy to sleep with her deep breathing. Does Snoopy fall asleep? Well, that’s another story. Like most things, meditation practices have to be tailored to the audience. Children in particular need creative methods of practice and up to a few years ago, there weren’t too many resources available for both practitioners and parents to utilize. I took an informal survey from my staff to…

I recently came across a study in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect that disturbed me. Victor Carrion, MD led a team of Stanford University researchers who looked at children living in a poor, violent neighborhood. This study built on past findings which associated worsening adult health to their childhood exposure to nine types of adverse childhood events. The investigators most recently found a strong link between adverse childhood experiences such as abuse, trauma and neglect, and the children’s mental and physical health. Reviewing the medical charts of 701 pediatric patients from the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco,…

Which room would you prefer… I imagine that many of you have children or grandchildren. Perhaps nieces or nephews? If you had to picture the nursery that you would want for them, would it look more like this: Or this: Did you cringe at the thought of putting a child in the sterile room at the top? There’s nothing to interest or excite them in such a sterile environment. Every child rearing book will tell you that babies need increasing levels of visual and mental stimulation so that they can grow and develop. Why then do we not expect that…

I frequently receive donation requests from charities like St. Jude’s Hospital or American Cancer Society, sometimes featuring the picture of a child recovering from cancer. I can tell that they have gone through experiences that make them older than their years and just hope that the treatments that they are receiving are successful. But it appears that even if they successfully battle cancer, they have other residual obstacles that may be in their paths. According to a new study published in Pediatrics, childhood cancer survivors are four times more likely to develop PTSD then their healthy siblings. Four times more…