Exploring mindfulness-based practice to enhance young children’s wellbeing in early childhood education and care in Ireland.

In her pre-conference post, Leesa Flanagan explains how she was first introduced to the concept of mindfulness and how her interests in the subject have widened, developed professional curiosity and evolved into an exciting new research project.

I was first introduced to mindfulness practice over eight years ago by a psychologist and I remember thinking at the time, why is this stranger telling me to focus on my breath and to foster my awareness and attention. I was apprehensive to say the least, I was filled with doubt and uncertainty. However, by adopting an attitude of acceptance and openness, over time mindfulness shifted from an intervention practice that I would use at times of stress and anxiety to a new way of being in my daily life to nurture my wellbeing.

In Ireland the wellbeing of young children under six years of age is represented in policy within the First Five Whole of Government Strategy (2019). This cross -government strategy aims to improve the lives of young children in Ireland while highlighting the sensitive period of birth to five as the integral time when children develop lifelong skills through the magnitude of early learning experiences (Government of Ireland, 2019). Within Aistear, the National Curriculum Framework (2009) for early childhood, wellbeing is identified as a key theme for children to become confident and competent learners. I began to reflect on how mindfulness could be a potential practice to enhance children’s wellbeing in the early years.

As an early year’s manager, I observed first-hand the negative impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on my team of educators, children and parents. The children were presenting with increased anxiety and self-regulatory challenges that were impacting their social emotional development in the classroom. While research was indicating the negative impact of the pandemic on our youngest citizens (Clarke et al., 2021; Malboeuf-Hurtubise et al., 2021) it has been suggested that mindfulness could help negate some of these symptoms (Behan, 2020) and deemed a potential practice to enhance children’s wellbeing (Sheinman, 2021; Flook et al., 2015; Meiklejohn et al., 2012).

Many of the research studies conducted to date in the early years focused on measuring outcomes of mindfulness programmes on children’s self-regulation (Bockman and Yu, 2022), executive function (Flook et al., 2015) and prosocial behaviour (Berti and Cigala, 2020). However, there is a dearth of research exploring the experiences and practices adopted by educators to support children’s wellbeing in the early years. Interestingly, there is a suggestion that having a whole school approach to mindfulness (Hudson et al., 2020) rather than sporadic mindfulness activities will lead to better outcomes for the children, with connections alluded to between educators and children’s wellbeing (Hwang et al., 2017).

In my BECERA presentation I will share my mindfulness journey with fellow participants in addition to describing the three-phase study that will be undertaken to gain a national picture of mindfulness-based practice in the early years in Ireland. Phase one will examine the prevalence of mindfulness-based practice in early years in Ireland through dissemination of a national survey. Phase two, through semi-structured interviews, will explore educator’s construction and enactment of mindfulness practice to gain deeper insight into the lived experiences of the educators and young children. Phase three will involve a focus group discussion with educators, parents, psychologists, mindfulness teachers and university programme leads to allow the interconnected systems discuss the findings together. It is envisaged to transfer accrued knowledge into an action plan to support the use of mindfulness in the early childhood education and care sector to enhance the wellbeing of young children in Ireland.

I am looking forward to presenting my ideas and research alongside fellow BECERA participants.

Leesa Flanagan is a doctoral student at Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland (funded through the Technological University Transformation Fund). She is also a part time lecturer in the Early Childhood Education and Care programme in TUS in Limerick. For ten years, Leesa was an early year’s manager supporting children and families facing extreme disadvantage.

References

Behan, C. (2020) The Benefits of Meditation and Mindfulness Practices during Times of Crisis Such as COVID-19. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 37, pp. 256-258.

Berti, S., & Cigala, A. (2020) Mindfulness for Preschoolers: Effects on Prosocial Behavior, Self-Regulation and Perspective Taking. Early Education and Development, 33, pp. 38 - 57.

Bockmann, J. O., & Yu, S. Y. (2022). Using Mindfulness-Based Interventions to Support Self-regulation in Young Children: A Review of the Literature. Early childhood education journal, 1–11.

Clarke, J., Kipping, R., Chambers, S., Willis, K., Taylor, H., Brophy, R., Hannam, K., Simpson, S. A., & Langford, R. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 restrictions on preschool children's eating, activity and sleep behaviours: a qualitative study. BMJ open, 11(10), e051497.

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (2018). First 5: A Whole of Government Strategy for Babies, Children and their Families. 2019-2028. Government Publications: Dublin

Feng, X., Hooper, E. G., & Jia, R. (2017) From compliance to self-regulation: Development during early childhood. Social Development, 26, 981-995.

Flook, L., Goldberg, S. B., Pinger, L., & Davidson, R. J. (2015). Promoting prosocial behavior and self-regulatory skills in preschool children through a mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum. Developmental psychology, 51(1), 44–51.

Hudson, K. G., Lawton, R., & Hugh-Jones, S. (2020). Factors affecting the implementation of a whole school mindfulness program: a qualitative study using the consolidated framework for implementation research. BMC health services research, 20(1), 133.

Hwang, Y., Bartlett, B., Greben, M., & Hand, K. (2017). A systematic review of mindfulness interventions for in-service teachers: A tool to enhance teacher wellbeing and performance. Teaching and Teacher Education, 64, 26-42.

Malboeuf-Hurtubise, C., Lefrançois, D., Mageau, G. A., Taylor, G., Éthier, M. A., Gagnon, M., & DiTomaso, C. (2020). Impact of a Combined Philosophy and Mindfulness Intervention on Positive and Negative Indicators of Mental Health Among Pre-kindergarten Children: Results From a Pilot and Feasibility Study. Frontiers in psychiatry, 11, 510320.

Meiklejohn, J., Phillips, C., Freedman, M. L., Griffin, M. L., Biegel, G., Roach, A., & ... Saltzman, A. (2012) Integrating mindfulness training into K-12 education: Fostering the resilience of teachers and students. Mindfulness, 3(4), pp.291-307

NCCA (2009) Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework. Government Publications: Dublin.

Sheinman, N., Russo-Netzer, P. (2021). Mindfulness in Education: Insights Towards an Integrative Paradigm. In: Kern, M.L., Wehmeyer, M.L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64537-3_24