Like most adults, meditation probably isn’t something you learned when you were a kid, but rather a practice you learned as you got older. Meditation at any age is beneficial, but think back to your childhood: how could meditation have helped you better navigate your youth?
Would it have helped you fall asleep faster? Taken away some of your stress and anxiety? Helped you focus and do better in school? Or maybe, it would have helped you navigate the challenges of just being a kid.
Research proves that meditation can produce these benefits, and more.
So, can kids meditate? Yes, kids can absolutely meditate, and experience the benefits, just like adults! The real question to ask is, why aren’t more kids meditating? That is a little harder to answer, and its most likely because parents may not know meditation is an option, or they may think that their child is not a good candidate for meditation.
For many parents, the idea of their child sitting down to meditate seems like a fantasy. But there are many different types of meditation and many ways to practice. True, kids probably aren’t going to sit down cross-legged for 60 minutes (what adult even has time for that?) but many meditation practices, like guided stories, naturally engage children because children love stories and using their imaginations.
When meditation involves the world of make-believe, and recurring characters that kids love, engagement happens. Meditation becomes something kids look forward to and want to do.
It all comes down to making meditation kid-friendly, which thankfully, is a lot easier than sitting still for 60 minutes.
Research says yes, meditation is good for kids! Beyond the traditional benefits associated with meditation, like stress reduction and improved sleep, kids can benefit from meditation in so many ways.
Meditation has been found to foster calm, reduce anxiety, and even serve as a protective factor against some mental health disorders. For a lot of kids, meditation is a tool that helps them feel better, inside and out. Aside from these benefits, meditation has recently been praised for its ability to help kids succeed in school.
Focus, an integral part of academic success, has been shown to be improved by meditation. One study found that brief meditation can improve the attention span even in novice meditators. Another study found that meditation can increase control and awareness of thoughts. In other words, meditation can help kids focus more easily by helping them to become more aware of their attention, and when it wanders.
The increased focus and awareness does more than help students pay attention, it helps boost their metacognition, or the process of “thinking about thinking.” Metacognition is important for kids to strengthen, not just in school, but for everyday life. For example, if a child struggles in language arts, they can use metacognition to understand what exactly about language arts they don’t like. Their internal dialogue can shift from “I’m bad at this”, to “I don’t like reading aloud, but I can work on it.”
In everyday life metacogntion may look like a child knowing they are overstimulated and then knowing that taking a calming break would make them feel better. It might be a child becoming more flexible in their thinking and realizing that are different ways to approach a problem or challenge.
Meditation has also been shown to increase both emotional intelligence in children and boost empathy in novice meditators. Not only is this important for kids to thrive in school, but it also helps kids build meaningful relationships throughout their entire lives.
These benefits don’t just improve academic performance either, they help kids develop lifelong skills like kindness, resilience, and self-confidence.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children can start benefiting from meditation when they enter preschool, around 3-5 years old. During this stage of childhood, children begin to rapidly expand their awareness of themselves and others, making this age the perfect time to introduce meditation. Depending on their age, some children can meditate for longer than others.
For example, a four-year-old may only want to do a quick practice, for 2 minutes, and an eight-year-old may prefer to listen to a longer guided story meditation before bed. The time spent meditating can certainly increase as children get older, but always let kids take the lead.
Kids can meditate in a very similar way to adults. They can meditate with a specific goal in mind, like improving focus, or as a general calming practice. As mentioned above, some meditation techniques are better suited towards kids than others. Practices that utilize storytelling and involve kids using their imaginations are easily engaging while effectively teaching meditation. To first introduce meditation, begin when your child is already feeling calm and start with shorter bursts of meditation throughout the day. In time, kids will come to enjoy how meditation makes them feel. This will result in them wanting to meditate and spend longer times meditating.
Kids can meditate before school, on the bus, during class, at home, the options are really endless. That’s one of the many benefits of teaching kids how to meditate while they’re young: they can apply their skills in virtually all aspects of their lives.
Consider these daily activities for a second grader: they wake up, head to school, learn, play, talk to classmates, listen to teachers, head back home, complete homework, participate in activities, and go to bed.
Now, consider all the ways meditation can help kids with those same daily activities. Heading to school, but nervous about a test? Meditation can help. Having trouble focusing during class? Meditation can help with that too. Communicating their feelings more effectively? You guessed it! Meditation can help with that too.
When kids meditate, the benefits often look like a positive domino effect. Consider this: your child begins meditating and as a result, has less anxiety. Consequently, they begin to get better sleep, which improves their focus, which helps them listen to instructions more carefully, and even do better in school.
Of course, every child is unique and the way they benefit from meditation may differ from the benefits another child experiences. But one thing is clear: meditation can be used to improve nearly every aspect of your child’s daily life.
When we think of meditation, it is often depicted as a solo practice, perhaps practiced on a remote mountaintop in complete solitude. But meditation can be practiced, and even enhanced by, group practice. Children naturally model their behavior after parents and caregivers and meditation is no different.
Even if you’re not an experienced meditator, your child will benefit from seeing you making an effort to practice. They may have a lot of questions and may even try to join you. If they do, you can answer all of their questions and encourage their meditation through positive reinforcement. If they’re not interested after watching you meditate, that’s okay too, meditation is about building habits up over time.
Using a meditation platform, like Wee Meditate, makes it easy to practice as a family. With a variety of content lengths and styles of practice, there is something everyone can enjoy. In addition, meditating together offers families a calm way to connect, and is a wonderful antidote to excessive screen time.
It’s important to remember that meditation needs to be part of a daily routine, like teeth brushing. An easy way for parents to encourage meditation is to speak of it like it’s part of a routine. For example, every morning and night you probably say, “Remember to brush your teeth.” This statement makes it clear to children that teeth brushing is important and an expected part of their daily life. If you take a similar approach and say something like, “Did you meditate yet today?” your child will quickly understand that meditation is also an important part of their daily routine.
However, unlike brushing your teeth, there may be some days your child just isn’t in the mood to meditate, especially when they’re first introduced to it. In time, meditating will come naturally to them and be something they want to do, even without your reminders.
Ready to introduce your child to easy and engaging meditation? We’ve created Wee Meditate to help kids feel and be their very best, today, and every day, for their entire lives. Wee Meditate subscribers can access our storybook world of meditation, including these fan-favorites:
A guided meditation story that will help your child transition from day to night and ease common worries at bedtime.
● Dragon’s Magical Movie Theater
A visualization story to help kids recognize their feelings and turn a bad day around.
● Melt
This short body scan meditation will help your child feel relaxed and melty, like a gooey chocolate chip cookie, right out of the oven.
An immersive bedtime story that will ease your child into a peaceful sleep and encourage deep rest.
● Raccoon and the Wishing Well
A guided meditation that will empower your child through affirmations and give them the confidence to reach their dreams.
A quick moving meditation designed to help your child unwind through gentle movement.
Explore gratitude and appreciation with Deer in this guided story meditation.
Introducing your child to meditation can be a great way to help them navigate their lives and help them feel and be their very best. The skills kids learn in meditation will improve their childhood and help them for their entire lives.
