Teaching kindness at school, home

Kids have better attention span, better grades, higher social competence

ROANOKE – The rates of bullying, substance abuse, anxiety, and depression are growing among teens and even pre-teens. Psychologists believe they found something that can decrease the some of these emerging.

Kindness is a skill that can be taught.

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"It's fundamentally no different than learning how to play the violin or learning to do sports," said Richard Davidson, University of Wisconsin, Madison psychologist who developed the mindfulness-based kindness curriculum for preschoolers to help them pay closer attention to their emotions. "Part of the curriculum involves being able to tune into sensations in the body and learn to identify them and respond to them in an appropriate way."

One of the techniques he uses in class that parents can use with kids at home is belly breathing.

Davidson tested the curriculum on a group of preschoolers.

"We found that kids who went through the kindness curriculum behaved more altruistically," he said.

He also found that the kids in the kindness curriculum had a better attention span, better grades, and showed a higher level of social competence.

Emily Golliher uses the kindness curriculum in her elementary school and says it's vital for child development.

"If we can spend time and teach students how to be kind to themselves and kind to others that is just going to have a ripple effect across the school environment" said Golliher.

The mindfulness-based kindness curriculum is free to download from the Center of Healthy Minds' website: https://centerhealthyminds.org/

 


About the Author:

You can see Jenna weekday mornings at the anchor desk on WSLS 10 Today from 5-7 a.m. She also leads our monthly Solutionaries Series, where we highlight the creative thinkers and doers working to make the world a better place.