Using Mindfulness with Children with Autism to Decrease Disruptive Behavior in the K-3 Classroom

First Presenter's Institution

University of Alabama

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Erica Lee is a clinical assistant research professor of special education at the University of Alabama. Her education background includes B.S., MAEd, Ed.S., and Ph.D. degrees in various general and special education concentrations. Dr. Lee has prior experience as a special education teacher for ten years, serving in inclusive, resource, and self-contained special education settings from K-6th grade.

Second Presenter's Institution

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Second Presenter’s Email Address

ansonl@mtnbrook.k12.al.us

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Lauren Anson is a special education teacher, currently serving students in 2nd through 3rd grade. Her education background includes B.S., MAEd, Ed.S., and Ph.D. degrees in various general and special education concentrations. Dr. Anson has experience as a special education teacher for over ten years, serving in inclusive, resource, and self-contained special education settings from K-6th grade.

Document Type

Event

Primary Strand

Mindfulness and Wellbeing

Relevance to Primary Strand

This presentation can offer immediate outcomes for young children and their families. The present study specifically focused on young children with autism who exhibited disruptive behavior in the early childhood inclusion classroom. Through this explicit social-emotional intervention, students of all ages and backgrounds can benefit from learning to pay attention to their breath, body, and positive traits.

This presentation could be useful for a variety of audiences. The most relevant groups may involve practitioners and researchers. Practitioners will be able to take the information learned and apply it to their own classrooms/settings. The presentation will include mindfulness activities that can be used or easily adapted to fit the needs of different ages of children. Researchers can benefit from learning about a recent study conducted to fill the gap in the presently-growing trend of mindfulness. Even family members could benefit by learning about these easily-implemented, low-intensity techniques that require no equipment and can be done almost anywhere.

Targeting students' social-emotional development is something that can be incredibly beneficial for children of all types. Regardless of background or cultural experience, all children can benefit from participating in a structured activity in which they are taught to pay attention to their breath, body, and inner self. The content of this study can be immediately relevant and useful to children of all ages and backgrounds. As the researcher in this study, I found the mindful practices to be mutually beneficial for myself as an educator, as well as for my students who were in need of a social-emotional intervention.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

Student Learning and Development

Brief Program Description

The presence of disruptive patterns of behavior adversely impacts students’ educational performance. By directly targeting students' deficits in social-emotional learning, educators can equip students with the tools they need to learn in their natural environments. Mindfulness-based activities can be used to prevent disruptive behavior in the K-3 inclusion classroom. Attendees will be equipped with mindfulness activities to use in their own settings.

Summary

This presentation will begin with a review of the existing literature and provide participants with an understanding of what is missing in the research. The presentation will then involve the presentation of methodology, including the student participant demographics, detailed intervention and baseline conditions, and data collection methods. The methodology discussion will also include many visuals of the various mindfulness-based activities that were used in the study. Next, the presentation will include a review of results with discussion. The presentation as a whole will be presented in an engaging but informational format for optimum participant enjoyment and educational benefit.

Evidence

Mindfulness has become a growing trend over the past several years. The trend has been preceding the practice and is in need of more scientific research to back up the practice (Van Dam et al., 2018; Greenberg & Harris, 2012). The present study was conducted to help fill that gap. Specifically, research on mindfulness in schools is incredibly lacking (Cook & Odom, 2013). Several recent studies have shown promising results, but the literature base is still in need of further research. This study filled a very specific gap in the literature by looking at the provision of mindfulness as an intervention with young children with autism to decrease disruptive behavior in the early childhood inclusion classroom.

The present study involved four students between the ages of five and eight. Inclusion criteria for the participants included: a clinical diagnosis of autism, patterns of disruptive behavior, and regular instruction within the general education inclusion classroom. The research followed an A-B-A-B single case research design. Intervention sessions involved the provision of a structured mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) during a transitional break. Baseline conditions did not involve an MBI in order to serve as a control. Visual analysis indicated a strong functional relation between participation in an MBI and decreased rates of disruptive behavior in the inclusion classroom setting.

Learning Objective 1

Learn the current evidence-base surrounding the use of mindfulness-based interventions in early elementary special education.

Learning Objective 2

Learn about the overwhelming success found in the present study in which four children with autism experienced decreases in disruptive behavior after participating in a mindfulness-based intervention.

Learning Objective 3

Gain a set of a mindfulness-based activities that can be used with their own students/children.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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Using Mindfulness with Children with Autism to Decrease Disruptive Behavior in the K-3 Classroom

This presentation will begin with a review of the existing literature and provide participants with an understanding of what is missing in the research. The presentation will then involve the presentation of methodology, including the student participant demographics, detailed intervention and baseline conditions, and data collection methods. The methodology discussion will also include many visuals of the various mindfulness-based activities that were used in the study. Next, the presentation will include a review of results with discussion. The presentation as a whole will be presented in an engaging but informational format for optimum participant enjoyment and educational benefit.