Children’s experiences of learning
mindfulness to help learn
attentional skills:
A study using interpretive
phenomenological analysis
Bernadette Carelse
Educational Psychologist
1. Context of the study
• Origins of the research project
– Educational psychology involves supporting children with
SEN, including attentional difficulties
– Mindfulness - an area of personal and professional interest
• Rationale for the study
– Attentional skills are related to academic attainment
– Mindfulness training can help with attentional difficulties
• Original and distinctive contribution
– Developing mindfulness-based intervention for supporting
those with attentional difficulties in a primary school
– Exploring children’s experiences of mindfulness
2. Background literature
Research with adults:
• Mindfulness can help develop cognitive skills , including
attentional skills can be developed through practicing
mindfulness (adults and adolescents)
Research on mindfulness with children:
• is an emerging area of research
• Indicates improved well-being– mindfulness was taught as
an additional subject area, e.g. within PSHCE
• Has been used in health settings for reducing anxiety,
improving behaviour (not in schools)
• Children’s views are important – methodological issues
3. Methodology
The research question:
What are these children’s experiences of learning mindfulness?
Method
• A 10-session small group intervention at School Action for pupils in
Year 5 with mild attentional difficulties was designed. It was run in a
mainstream primary school twice a week for 5 weeks - 50 minute
sessions.
• It was based on ideas from mindfulness programmes including
– Adults and adolescents to address attentional skills (MAPs for ADHD)
– Adolescents in secondary school settings (MISP)
– Breathing Space in Schools – designed by Srivati (London Buddhist Centre)
• The process included data-collection - Interviews before and after
participation in the group. During the sessions, the children were
invited to draw or write about their experiences.
• Analysis – used Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis
4.1. Background to the participants
• Adam – struggled to maintain
attention. Overwhelmed at
times by “sad feelings”
• Barbara – easily distracted,
chatty
• Calvin – daydreams and
struggles to focus in class
• Dudley – finds to very difficult
to concentrate in class,
unmotivated.
• Eric – unfocused and
disengages often in class
• Fiona – lacks self-confidence
and struggles to focus on her
work
Fiona: It felt weird because “I shut my
eyes” (Session 1, F1:68)
4.2. Initial views on mindfulness
•
•
•
•
“Good” or “fine” (all)
“Calm” (Eric)
“Relaxing” (Adam)
“I feel like better than I
normally feel.” (Adam)
• “I thought it was good
because I’ve got more
energy.” (Barbara)
• My head was spinning
around and around the
room, just going slowly, in a
peaceful kind of way.”
(Calvin).
• “Weird funny” (Fiona)
Barbara: “My legs felt that something ..was
tickling me” (B1:81). “I thought it was good
because I’ve got more energy.” (B1: 85)
4.3. The children’s immediate
experiences of mindfulness
Adam: “I noticed sounds”
(A1:121) “I feel like my
muscles are relaxed and my
body is relaxed .” (A1: 123).
Dudley: The initial mindfulness practice was
described as “nice and quiet.” (D1:118). During it,
he had been aware of many different things “all at
the same time” (D1: 122).
4.4.1. Drawing physical experiences
(Left) Calvin:
describes his
first session,
saying “I just
felt like I was
spinning round
and round. It
was cool
towards the
end.” (C2: 76)
(Right) Calvin:
describes body
scan in 2nd
session, saying
“I kind of felt I
was spinning
around.” (D2:
92)
(Above) Calvin: (I’m in the
middle)..Loads of things were
going around. Stars and swirls and
stuff.” (C2:102)
4.4.1. Drawing physical experiences
Calvin: Session 5, describing
his breath “It was the like the
sea, like it was always moving
around.” (C2:116)
Calvin: Session 8, describes he
experiences of a sitting mindfulness
practice “I could feel the air and I
could hear the bell, the bell outside or
something.”
4.4.2. Memories
Fiona: “I was thinking of the seaside”
and the sun “going down”. “It makes
me want to swim as well.” She could
not remember where it was (Session
5, F2: 130, 135 , 140 and 146).
Calvin: “I kept thinking about my bike
and how it got nicked... I kept on
thinking about ghosts and stuff... I was
kind of annoyed about my bike getting
nicked.” (Session 9; C2:180, 182 and
184)
4.4.3. Imaginary places
Eric: Describes the first session, “I’m
meditating... I’m feeling cool.. No hotness,
just like it’s smooth.” (E2: 132, 136, 138)
Eric: Describes session 5, “The beach! ..
It felt good and I built a sand castle.”
Eric: Describes session 6: “This is football.. That’s my coach.. And
that’s me... Goal!” (E2: 210, 214, 216, 220)
4.4.3. Imaginary places
Eric: Session 8 i s depicted with the
caption “I was thinking about me
being an animal.” He described his
picture, “That’s me being a bird,
having a worm in my mouth... I was
focused on like the air. That’s like my
breathing (E2: 240 and 252)
Eric: At the last interview, drew an imaginary
world “cookie-land”, saying “I’m in my happy
place” (D2: 306) where “everything is made out
of biscuit, even the dog.” (E2: 314) and “When
I’m upset, I just go into my happy place” (E2:
346). He struggles to return to the present
from here, needing prompting at times.
4.4.4. Mental processes
Dudley: described his picture, saying
“The green is me. The blue is the relax.
And the brown is comfortableness.
Hmm.. I’ve never done that before.”
(Session 5, D2: 208)
Dudley: described this picture of things that
distract his attention, saying “This one’s
Basketball and this one’s football and I’m
sitting down thinking of those sports. And
someone is singing, who I don’t know. And I
wrote in the corner “football, basketball and
singing ”.” (Session 8, D2: 270)
4.4.4. Mental processes
Calvin: it was on like your thoughts or your
concentration. So a candle is burning. It
flickers and stuff. And then after a while it
goes out. (Session 6, C2: 144)
Barbara: Describes her way of maintaining
her attention on her breath, “I just felt like
singing and so I just thought of humming
at bit and then in my thought I was
counting to ten “ ( Session 8, B2: 351)
4.4.5. Present moment drawings
Barbara: “I was just thinking about triangles,
going in my head. And I didn’t have
anything , but then, when I started draw..
thinking I just kept looking at triangles.
Everything’s triangles. So I thought I should
draw the triangles . So I just thought I
should draw triangles.
Barbara: Describes her drawing from
session 9, “Well I was thinking about
seeing loads of rainbows, because I’ve
never seen one, except.. except at in Year
5, because we saw a rainbow when we
was in the park. “ (B2: 371) “I just got it in
my head. I just thought of seeing those
loads of rainbows in one go.” (B2: 373)
Children’s views on teaching
mindfulness
• Mindfulness is about developing ways to concentrate,
being in the present.
• The mindfulness course was fun, especially body scan.
• The practices were initially difficult but got easier.
• Mindfulness helped them to:
– Concentrate better in class, ignoring distractions, focus on
the teacher instead of talking to friends and work quicker
– Help their friends to be calmer and more focused too.
– Speak to parents more calmly and be patient with siblings.
• Practicing at home: body scan, sitting mindfulness
6. Implications
• There is increasing interest in the use of
mindfulness approaches in school settings
• Using mindfulness-approaches as a school-based
intervention - it has some potential.
• Use of metaphor to enable children to develop
understanding and control of attentional
processes.
• Use of children’s drawings to help them to
communicate abstract experiences.
• Supporting children to develop skills to manage
difficult (sad or angry) feelings.
7. Further thoughts and conclusions
• Training to teach mindfulness in schools
• Adapting materials for teaching mindfulness
to help children learn attentional skills.
• Involving school staff and parents
• Personal practice of trainers
• Working with other educational psychologists
• bernadette.carelse@learningtrust.co.uk