 |
What would happen if 4-year old children spent their summer immersed in cultivating kindness? This is what CIHM sought to find out, so this past summer as part of its ongoing research investigating the benefits of mindfulness practices in the classroom, CIHM’s Lisa Flook, PhD, and senior outreach specialist Laura Pinger, MS, joined with Dr. Jan Edwards and clinic director Peggy Rosin, MS, from the UW-Madison Communicative Disorders Department to conduct a pilot project in local preschool Head Start Programs. Students in one Head Start classroom participated in a six-week CIHM Kindness Curriculum that involved a focus on breathing and movement practices to develop awareness, reading selected books related to kindness and caring, and engaging in acts of kindness. Students in the other classroom participated in a seven-week TALK (Talk and Learn for Kindergarten) Curriculum aimed at increasing knowledge of code-switching (differences between ’school’ and ‘home’ talk) and phonological awareness with activities that incorporated rhyming games, music and challenges such as “can you read your teacher’s mind?”
“These are the types of programs we need more of,” says Marcia Huemoeller, executive director of the Dane County Parents Council, the agency that provides programming and assistance to local Head Start organizations. “We were thrilled with the opportunity to be involved in this research, and the initial outcomes and results we’ve seen are far better than what we could’ve imagined.”
Huemoeller hopes programs like CIHM’s pilot study can be replicated and made available to more educators to better prepare children with the skills required to promote attention and pro-social skills. “The impact would be tremendous,” she says.
To learn more about CIHM’s educational research, click here.
Photo credit: Krakora Studios of Madison, Wisconsin.
