Stillness in children should be acknowledged as a skill, not an expectation. It is not in the nature of most children to “sit still” for extended periods of time, however it is a teachable skill. Many children (and adults) struggle a great deal with body and postural awareness, spatial awareness, and self sensory regulation. There are may methods to help calm a child who is over stimulated (or under stimulated) and may need strategies to get back on track. Using strategies in Mindfulness can help improve classroom goals for stillness and calmness.
Flexible Seating Arrangements
Offering students flexible seating options can help enhance the learning environment. Changing position and posture helps in arousal of “ready to learn” areas of the brain. It helps to promote creativity and productivity. This is a concept applicable to all age levels K-12 and beyond. Let’s take a look at Google and Apple, clearly world leaders in creativity, productivity, ingenuity. Why not model our future off those who are living it…..
Calming Corner
A Calming corner is a “safe space” to “reset” or calm ones self. It can be customized to the need of the classroom or individual. It can included areas to express emotion or use methods to create a calm environment. In the presence of stress, fear or frustration neural messages to the brain trigger your sympathetic system (the fight or flight response). This shuts down incoming sensory information that doesn’t directly relate to survival. No learning or memory occurs in this state. Thinking is fuzzy and creativity is at a minimum.
Self Calming Strategies
All people, children included, experience stress. When we are stressed, our body functions in “survival mode”, which limits our brain function to only things necessary for survival. This inhibits learning and retention. There are some simple strategies to manage stressors throughout the school day as well as some strategies to redirect or even avoid. With a few simple activities, we can get back to a “ready to learn” state.
Tantrum vs. Meltdown
Children can’t be the best version of themselves at all times (quite honestly, none of us can). But what is the difference between throwing a “temper tantrum” because they are not getting what they want versus being so overstimulated that they are unable to think or function?
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