I'm Feeling My Breath

Mindfulness and Prompt Language with an Elementary School Student with Autism

Presenter: Lejf Hansen

Presenter Status: Graduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Department: Educational Leadership and Special Education

Abstract:
There exists a substantial and growing body of research relating to teaching mindfulness practices to school-aged children. Numerous positive outcomes have been observed across studies relating to self-regulation and positive behaviors, executive function, attention, and anxiety. To date, there is a much smaller body of research dedicated to the outcomes and methods used when mindfulness is taught to children with autism. Many of the specific challenges experienced by students with autism, as related to their diagnosis, directly reflect the domains in which mindfulness has cultivated positive outcomes among the population of typically-developed students. Within the autism-specific body of mindfulness research, numerous modifications and adaptations of mindfulness curriculum have been attempted, so as to scaffold and support the teaching of the concepts to individuals with autism. I sought to contribute to the growing body of research around possible benefits of mindfulness for individuals with autism, and to evaluate another possible modification of mindfulness curriculum, based upon existing methods for teaching social skills to students with autism. A single student with autism in the fourth grade, participated in two whole-class mindfulness interventions in which a standardized mindfulness curriculum was delivered over a 6-week course, and then participated in the same curriculum during a second intervention phase in which the prompts were changed from third-person to first-person language. Data were taken at various points in the study through executive function and autism symptoms behavior rating scales (BRIEF and ASRS, respectively), filled-out by classroom staff; and through executive function performance tasks (Eriksen Flanker task, Stroop Color Word task) completed by the student following each mindfulness lesson. Data were collected and analyzed for any possible benefits, and any observable difference in degree of change across the two interventions. The data for this study were inconclusive, and did not reveal consistent or direct observable benefits in the area of executive function or autism symptoms, or any greater effects from one intervention over the other.