The Mindful Classroom

By Janelle Cox   Elementary Education Expert 

The mindful classroom is more than just a place where students live in the moment. It's a place where students are able to control their thoughts, communicate their feelings to their peers, and cultivate a peaceful learning environment. Mindfulness is not something new, ancient Buddhists have been practicing this technique for decades. Then yogis started to use it, and now scientists have backed up the facts and benefits of it so the public has really taken notice to it.

Here we will take a look at what's it's all about, the amazing benefits for your students (and yourself) and how you can introduce it to your classroom.

What are the Benefits of Mindfulness?
You may have read about mindfulness or heard it the news and thought, this is something for people that meditate. While it can be used in meditation, it's much more than that. Doctors use it in their practice, and dietitians recommend it to their clients who need to be mindful when they are trying to loose weight. Now, teachers are using it their classrooms to help students focus. Here are a some of the amazing benefits that research has found:

• Reduces stress hormones
• Improves attention span
• Boosts memory
• Enhances self-insight
• Improved academic performance

Just by focusing your attention and being in the moment, this calming tool can be so helpful. By calming the mind, students will be able to control their negative thoughts and learn to focus.

How Can a Teacher Introduce Mindfulness to their Students?
Now that you know a little bit about mindfulness, here are a few tips on how to introduce it to your students.

1. Breathe. Encourage students to use their breath throughout the day, or take about 10-15 minutes of class time to have students do a few deep breathing techniques. Start by having students sit comfortably, either on top of their desks or on the floor. Then have them close their eyes and focus on their breath. Have them focus on their inhales and their exhales, trying to lengthen them each time they breathe. If they feel like they are unfocused and their mind is wondering (which will happen) have them count up to ten each inhale and exhale. Once they get the hang of it, this is something that they can do by themselves throughout the day.

2. Mood Journal. An effective way to get your students to understand their moods and feelings is to have them keep a mood journal. This is a great resource to help them learn to recognize their feelings and why they are having them. Once they look back at what they wrote they can be mindful of how they feel. This will help them learn how to cope with their feelings and find a way to deal with them.

3. Chimes. Chimes are a very calming sound that when heard can help remind students to focus their thoughts on what they are doing in that moment. When students here the sound of the chimes in class they will stop what they are thinking and doing, and just know to direct and focus their thoughts. It's also a great way to get and keep your students attention.

4. Experiment. Not all students will be able to be mindful of their breathing. While with some students, breathing may be all it takes to calm their mind, others may need more. So you can experiment with a few different mindful techniques. Try having students talk a walk and listen to the sounds that they hear. Or, have them count the sounds that they hear as they walk. You can even have students listen to a song or a poem. As long as they are being mindful with what they are doing, their are using mindfulness.
The human brain is very powerful, by teaching your students mindfulness, you are giving them a tool that they can take with them, and use whenever they feel the need to reduce their stress.

6 Autism Terms That Have Disappeared from the Textbooks

By Lisa Jo Rudy

Autism Spectrum Disorders Expert 

Updated June 17, 2015.                  

Over the years, the words used to describe autism and people with autism have changed radically.  Today, there are many terms that have either been removed from diagnostic literature or retired from polite conversation.  Here are just a a few :

1. Childhood Schizophrenia.  What would cause a child to be inwardly focused, non-verbal, unable to respond appropriately to social cues?  For many years, doctors and researchers assumed that such behaviors were a result of mental illness.  While the symptoms of autism are quite different from those of schizophrenia, they are similar enough to suggest a connection.  Thus, during the 1950's and 60's, many children with more severe symptoms of what we now call Autism Spectrum Disorder were diagnosed with Childhood Schizophrenia. That diagnosis, however, has long since disappeared from the diagnostic manuals.
2. Refrigerator Mother.  How might a child become so distanced from others that he or she is unwilling or unable to communicate, make eye contact, or engage in ordinary play?   Bruno Bettleheim and Leo Kanner (the man who gave autism its name) believed that the problem related to cold, distant "refrigerator mothers" who so traumatized their children that they literally drove them into autism.  Very fortunately, later research showed that the refrigerator mother theory held no water -- but many parents were blamed, unnecessarily, for their children's autistic symptoms.
3. Infantile Autism.  The term "early infantile autism" was coined by Leo Kanner in 1943. Dr. Bernard Rimland, the parent of a child with autism, became a major player in the work of understanding and treating the disorder.  His work entitled "Infantile Autism" was an important step toward that goal.  Infantile autism referred to what might be called "severe" autism, and it entered the diagnostic manual in 1980 (with the DSM III).  In 1987, with the publication of the DSM IV, the term disappeared from common usage.
4. Asperger Syndrome (or Asperger's Syndrome).  Hans Asperger was a German pediatrician who studied the symptoms of young people who were nowhere near as disabled as those with infantile autism but who, nevertheless, had significant challenges in the areas such as social communication. Asperger's work was largely ignored (due in part to World War II) until decades later. In 1980, Asperger Syndrome became an official diagnosis in the DSM III.  In 2013, however, with the DSM 5, Asperger Syndrome ceased to be an official diagnosis.  Today, while the term is still widely used to describe what many call "high functioning autism," it is no longer a true diagnosis.
5. Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).  Like many autism-related terms, PDD-NOS came into use in 1980 and disappeared again in 2013.  PDD-NOS was a catchall diagnosis intended to describe children who didn't entirely fit the autism criteria but were clearly more severely (or differently) challenged than children with Asperger syndrome.  Like Asperger Syndrome, PDD-NOS became a very popular diagnosis, with numbers soaring between 1980 and 2013. Today, of course, there are exactly zero people with a PDD-NOS diagnosis!
6. Mentally Retarded.  Even in the fairly recent past (less than one hundred years ago) people with cognitive challenges were referred to by doctors as idiots, morons, and imbeciles (depending upon their level of challenge).  The term "mental retardation" was actually coined to avoid the use of those much more negative terms. Today, as the term has gained greater negative connotations, most people have replaced it with "cognitively challenged" or "intellectually disabled."  As a side note, it's important to know that typical IQ tests are not always appropriate for people with autism -- for whom spoken language can be a challenge.  Thus, while many people with autism are diagnosed with cognitive challenges, that diagnosis is not always correct.

What is PDD-NOS?

This Article Written By Lisa Jo Rudy

Autism Spectrum Disorders Expert 

My child has been diagnosed with something called PDD-NOS. What is PDD-NOS? Is it the same thing as autism?

Answer: PDD-NOS is an outdated diagnostic category which stands for pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified.  In essence, it's a diagnosis that means "on the autism spectrum, but not falling within any of the existing specific categories of autism."
To explain more fully: up until May 2013, there were five disorders that fell under the category of "pervasive developmental disorders" (PDDs).

• Autism
• High Functioning Autism
• Children with Autism
• Autistic
• Autism Spectrum Disorder

These included Autism, Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and PDD-NOS. Autism, Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome and fragile X were all specifically described in the DSM-IV -- the manual that practitioners used to diagnose neurological 

                                     disorders. 

Once the DSM-5 was published, however, the term PDD-NOS "disappeared" from the diagnostic literature.  Most people who once had the PDD-NOS diagnosis would now be considered to have an "autism spectrum" diagnosis instead.
Here is the explanation of PDD-NOS which describes what the diagnosis WAS, before it was removed from the DSM in 2013:                                                                                                                                                     Many children have some symptoms of one PDD and some symptoms of another, but not enough of any one of the four specific disorders to receive a diagnosis. Thus, they do have a PDD -- but they do not have Rett syndrome, fragile X, Asperger syndrome, or autism.