This week's article summary is Quick Mindfulness Cures for When Kids Are on the Brink. It builds on last week's summary by providing additional strategies to help students regulate their emotions before challenging behaviors escalate.
As we move beyond the first couple of weeks of school, we'll begin to see greater need to teach these skills intentionally. During preplanning, we talked about how misbehavior is more often a lack of skill rather than a lack of will. If we want students to respond differently, we have to equip them with strategies they can use in the moment.
Most of us have learned to manage our emotions through internal self-regulation techniques developed over time. Our students are still learning those skills.
Practicing simple mindfulness and breathing exercises gives students another tool they can use to pause, refocus, and shift their brains from reacting on instinct to responding with calm and reason. Like any skill, these strategies become more effective with consistent practice, making them a great addition to Morning Meeting or other daily classroom routines.
Joe
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Clenched fists, flushed cheeks and shaky, shallow breaths — most parents and teachers can spot these signs of an impending kid-meltdown.
When we notice kid are about to lose it, we have a few options: We can intervene in hopes of mitigating the damage; we can whisk our child home (or at least out of the public gaze) before the tantrum strikes; or we can simply hunker down and wait out the storm.
But what if we could avoid a meltdown in the first place?
Turns out, we can, at least some of the time.
Researchers say mindfulness — that wellness keyword of the moment — can help keep kids calm and centered.
By building a child’s awareness of their own emotional and physical state and strengthening the mind-body connection, mindfulness exercises are proven to reduce stress and anxiety and reduce self-harm in kids of all ages.
In the book “The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child,” best-selling author Daniel J. Seigel describes kids’ emotional zones:
The calm, connected Green Zone
The enraged, about-to-melt down Red Zone
The withdrawn, overstimulated Blue Zone
Using simple mindfulness activities, teachers and parents can help kids stay in the calm Green Zone, where they’re more likely to make better choices and maintain emotional and behavioral regulation.
Of course, a solid mindfulness practice involves consistent repetition and routine, not quick fixes. But for particularly heated moments, it doesn’t hurt to have a few mindfulness exercises on deck to help kids de-escalate when they can’t do it themselves. After all, kids don’t want to lose control any more than we do.
Breathing techniques: When a meltdown looms, sometimes you’ve got to pull something out of thin air. That’s where creative breathing techniques win the day. Deep breaths dial down anxiety in mere moments, and breathing exercises are simple and easy to whip out during heated moments. Try:
Birthday Candle Breaths: Pretend each outstretched finger is a birthday candle and then take a deep breath to blow each “candle” out
Starfish Breaths: Tracing a finger along the outline of the opposite hand in the form of a starfish, taking a deep breath up and down each finger
Rocket Breaths: Pressing hands together over their heart, then using a deep breath to “blast” the rocket overhead
Or try this one from “The Yes Brain”: When kids are upset, help them move back into their Green Zone by placing one hand on their chest and one hand on their stomach and simply breathing.
Kids can practice this calming technique in the morning during Morning Meeting. Each time the exercise is repeated, its calming effect is reinforced.
Peace out, meltdowns.
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