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Easy Mindfulness
Exercises for
Kids with ADHD
From the ADHD Experts at
A trusted source of advice and information for families touched by attention-deficit disorder—
and a voice of inspiration to help people with ADHD find success at home, at school, and on the job.
ADDitudeMag.com
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Easy Mindfulness
Exercises for
Kids with ADHD
10 eercises parents can use to encourae mindful
mediation, self-reflection, and improved focus in children
with ADHD.
By Kathryn Debros, Christopher Willard, Psy.D., and Elliott
Buck, M.Ed.
You’ve heard that mindful meditation can help increase focus, calm a buzz-
ing brain, or reduce symptoms of hyperactivity or impulsivity. And, like
many parents, you’d like to incorporate this free, non-medical therapy into
your child’s ADHD treatment plan.
Cultivate Calm
The problem, of course, is that many kids — especially those with ADHD Learn how your child’s
— don’t jump at the chance to meditate. Many are also not adequately aware brain changes with
of their feelings, bodily sensations, and breathing to apply meditation tech- mindful meditation at
niques properly. And parents (who seldom practice mindfulness themselves) htt
additu.decalm
don’t always know where to start, what exercises are appropriate, or how to rain
help their kids push past obstacles.
But mindfulness is possible — and effective — at any age. The key is to tai-
lor activities to your child’s maturity and interest level — and not to expect
meditation to be a cure-all for your child’s ADHD. Instead, keep an open
mind and encourage your child to use mindfulness in the way that works
best for her — ideally developing her self-awareness, building critical skills,
and finding her calmest, happiest self along the way.
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What are the benefits of Minfness for
chiren
Recent research has repeatedly shown that a daily dose of mindfulness im-
proves attention, boosts self-esteem, and helps kids better monitor their
emotions.
“Research indicates that brain training involving mindfulness practices can
strengthen areas of the brain responsible for attention, emotional control,
and problem solving,” say psychologists Kirk Strosahl and Patricia Robinson,
authors of In This Moment. “There is emerging evidence that mindfulness-
based brain training produces permanent structural changes in the brain.”
Some studies have also found that children who regularly practice mindful-
ness were more empathetic than their peers. In one small study, preschool-
ers were given stickers and told to distribute them to whomever they chose.
Before learning mindfulness, the children mostly gave the stickers to friends;
afterward, they happily gave the stickers to kids they didn’t know or didn’t like.
o can We Get starte mindfulness at
The best (and easiest) way to start a mindfulness practice is to encourage sChool
your child to focus on her breathing. Here are two easy, kid-friendly tech- Find 10 exercises for
niques to help get you started: stronger school focus at
• Hot hocolate reath This technique starts with your child hold- htt
additu.de
ing up her hands as if she were holding a mug of hot chocolate right school
under her face. Prompt some basic visualization, and ask her to
imagine first smelling the hot chocolate — inhaling deeply through
her nose — and then blowing it to cool it down, exhaling smoothly
across the surface out her mouth. Have her repeat this breathing pat-
tern and visualization — in through her nose smelling, and back out
through her mouth, cooling off — for a minute or two. Encourage her
to let her breath find its own rhythm: not too fast, and not too slow.
Using imagery like this — connecting the exercise to the pleasant sen-
sation of drinking hot chocolate — provides kids with a positive asso-
ciation and helps them make sense of their breathing patterns. Slow,
deliberate breathing is what calms down the body and the brain; the
visualization jumpstarts the prefrontal cortex and helps children with
ADHD focus their wandering attention.
Easy Mindfulness
• 7/11 reath This technique is popular with athletes, police officers, Exercises for
and teachers who are regularly placed in high-pressure, high-perfor- Kids with ADHD
from the editors of
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