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Picture a typical first grade classroom and two students whispering to each other even as the teacher begins the lesson. Seeing their distraction, the teacher calls out their names and says, “Please, pay attention!”
What the teacher is asking the students to do, of course, is to focus forward, watch and listen. But the children don’t necessarily know this. What they know for sure is that if they stop whispering to each other and look at the teacher as though they’re listening, the teacher will go on with the lesson. This tells the kids that they have obeyed and that “paying attention” means only facing forward and being quiet. Mentally, however, the students may remain thoroughly distracted.
Tony Eccles/Flickr
Of course, there are many factors that interfere with attention and learning – whether it is the average distraction described above or a chronic state as with children who are sleep deprived, have poor diets or are dealing with anxiety, depression or elevated stress.
When we ask children to “pay attention,” what we’re really asking them is something closer to the concept of being mindful.
Mindfulness, as Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches, is a special kind of attention: “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” It’s developing awareness of what’s happening both outside and inside oneself, and one’s physical being in the world.
As such, mindfulness has far-reaching effects. It lowers stress, develops concentration skills and improves memory. It nurtures emotional regulation, impulse control and goal-directed behavior. It supports learning preparedness.
Attention is the gateway to learning.
The ability to engage, shift and sustain attention is central to academic and social success. Yet despite increasing concerns about inattention in our classrooms and the need for mindfulness in education, teachers often lack the information and strategies necessary to help their students.
This is why we’ve added a new course to the Yoga Calm curriculum – The Attentive Mind – which we’ll be offering for the first time November 13-14 at Lewis & Clark College here in Portland, Oregon.
In this two day course, we’ll explore the nature of attention, the mindfulness strategies that facilitate it and the factors that are toxic to a child’s ability to focus. This course is designed for both teachers and parents who want to help all children develop attention skills. Topics include:
- What “attention” is
- Biological, motivational and emotional factors that affect attention
- Mindfulness practices to improve attention
- The toxic effects of stress, multitasking and electronic media on attention
- Creating attentive classroom environments
- Instructional strategies that enhance attention
- Special considerations for ADHD, LD, TAG/GATE and other “unique” learners
Pre-registration is required. Ten Washington Clock Hours or 1 PSU Graduate Credit are available.
And for those who are seeking information about specific strategies and tools for children when ADHD is an issue, we also have our ADHD: The Mind-Body Connection workshop this October 9-10 at Marylhurst College, just south of Portland. You can learn more about this workshop and register for it here.
“Habit is one of the antidotes to inattention,” says ADHD expert Dr. Jeff Sosne, one of our featured presenters at our inaugural Children’s Wellness Conference earlier this year.
In the clip below, Dr. Sosne gives some tips for creating habit and countering what he describes as the “toxic factors that erode a child’s attention.”
His full talk, “ADHD and the Attentive Mind,” is available on our four DVD chronicle of the conference. The set includes nine engaging presentations with over six and a half hours of practical advice and teaching tips from expert educators, counselors, scientists and health professionals. Sessions include ADHD/Attention skills, Food for Thought, Yoga for Families and preschoolers, how to evaluate wellness programs, environmental education, Tools for Grieving Children, and Contemplative Education.
To order, visit the Yoga Calm Store.
Dr. Sosne will also be speaking at next week’s workshop, ADHD: The Mind-Body Connection, an essential seminar for teachers, counselors, OTs and others who want to enhance their ability to support children diagnosed with attention disorders, as well as parents of kids so diagnosed. The workshop features a live class component and will be held at Marylhurst University, just south of Portland, Oregon, October 9 – 10, from 9 am to 4 pm each day. PSU credit, CEUs and Washington State Clock Hours are available.
Space is limited, so if you’ve not yet registered, we encourage you to do so right away.
Health care and climate change dominate the headlines these days, but how are they related?
Well, for one, through our children. In fact, no two issues will affect them more in their lifetimes – from supporting Medicare costs for us baby boomers to dealing with the effects of major changes in weather patterns. And solutions to those issues are also interrelated, starting with the need to get children outside in nature and moving more.
just sof/Flickr
In addition to creating opportunities for much needed exercise, reconnecting children with nature is a prerequisite to their understanding and dealing with environmental issues. As Robert Pyle writes in The Thundertree, “What is the extinction of the condor to a child who has never known a wren?”
From the air we breathe to the food we eat to the exercise and solace we find in nature, our personal wellness is inextricably linked to the health of our environment. In fact, Richard Louv notes in Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, children’s alienation from nature is linked to ADHD, stress, depression and anxiety disorders, not to mention childhood obesity.
And yet its not just kids’ physical and mental health that improve when they’re more connected to the natural world. National studies have shown that the experiential and conceptual use of environmental education as an integrating concept also improves learning in math, science, social studies and language arts.
There’s no question to these benefits. The great challenge is how to get our students – and ourselves – reconnected with the natural world; how to stay engaged and hopeful in the face of overwhelming environmental issues; how to work together to creatively respond to our changing world.
That’s why we created our newest course, Creating a Sustainable Future – Integrating Wellness & Environmental Education.
This course demonstrates how Yoga Calm and environmental education activities can be integrated to develop high-interest, interdisciplinary lessons that meet and support K-8 health, science and physical education standards and curricula. Through exploring techniques of physical yoga, observation, self-reflection, social/emotional skills development, storytelling and simple schoolyard explorations, teachers, counselors and environmental educators will learn how to cultivate children’s innate curiosity and appreciation of their bodies, each other, animal life and other aspects of their natural, daily environment. This foundation provides the motivation and a powerful thematic basis for integrating more cognitive environmental education and natural science curricula.
With this creative, highly experiential and integrated approach to environmental education, meaningful connections between personal and planetary health can be drawn, fostering a lifelong interest in science and increased environmental citizenry and stewardship.
Our inaugural workshop is scheduled for April 10-11, 2010. Register now.
