.jpg "10 Mindful Activities to stimulate your child's Sensory Development")
To understand Mindful Activities we need to understand what Mindfulness is and how it affects people in all age groups. Mindfulness is bringing ones attention to the present situation and the things that are happening in the present moment.
Mindfulness draws its inspiration from Buddhism and its preaching’s on Meditation to develop self knowledge and wisdom. This is also know as the Sensory Development in Children. What we are saying here is that we are trying to make the children understand and observe and be aware of their surroundings and also learn to observe and differentiate the different states of the mind.
Studies have shown that Mindfulness is also very useful in children as it helps them to pay attention, Calm them down when they are upset and make better decisions. In short helps with emotional regulation and cognitive focus.
We can help children achieve Mindfulness and thus Sensory Development by making them undergo Brain Development Programs which pays attention to Child Brain Development Activities. These Brain Training Programs and Activities normally help the child to learn the art of meditation and also the process of how they can control their brain waves. Let us look at 10 Activities which will help the Children with their Sensory Development.
1. Meditation
Learning how to observe their breathing and concentrating on different parts of their body or trying to visualize an image on their shoulder or in between their eyebrows leads to awareness of the present and also leads to Mindfulness.
2. Silent Walks
Allow the children to walk in a silent garden and ask to observe the various sounds of the birds the wind the water or any other Animal or nature induced sounds and ask them to differentiate from them.
3. Listen to a Sound
Use a Bell or a Sound App and ask the children to close their eyes and listen for the sound that you are going to make and they should listen to it as long as they can hear it. Once they stop hearing the sound they should raise their hand. The sound could be of a bell or a short bird sound which would be approximately 30 seconds in length. This will help them exercise their sense of hearing and will also help them in being aware about their present surrounding and hence help in attain mindfulness.
4. Eat Something.
Pick up a chocolate that all the children would like, give each child a piece of the chocolate and ask them to eat the chocolate and savour the taste of the chocolate. They should be able to define the taste of the chocolate in their own words. This Activity is for awakening the Sense of Taste which lies in our mouth and is an important part of our life. This also makes the child concentrate on the present as they are trying to figure the taste of the chocolate thus leading to sensory enhancement.
5. Spend Time Together
Make it a habit to be with the children at one place every day or every alternate day for a specific set of exercises or exchange of thoughts. It could be as simple as sitting across and discussing one point per person on why they are thankful for the day. It would teach them gratitude and also help them appreciate life and its many wonders. It would help with their social upbringing.
6. Drawing
Drawing can also be done with children to help in mindfulness ask the children to darw and while they draw ask them to observe the pencil the lead and the colour of the lead and the drawing that they are making. Ask them to observe the smell of the paper, and how they have become paper from the huge trees that they once were.
7. Jumping
Ask the children to Jump up and down and then ask them to sit down with crossed legs and put their hands on their chest and observe the heart beats and their breathing. Ask them what else they notice about their bodies during this time. It is important to explain to the children that and a healthy body equate to a healthy and active mind.
8. Dancing
Put on some music that they children will love and ask them to dance to the music. You can also dance with them to make it a more joyful moment ask them to feel the difference in the state of their mind before the dance and after the dance. You will observe that if a child is in a sad state of mind before the dance they will immediately come into a happy state of mind once the dance is over if they have enjoyed the dance.
9. Touch
Help the child to build along with touch ask the children to close their eyes and catch a toy of their choice. Now ask them to feel the toy and experience what it feels like. Now ask the children simple questions like what the toy would feel like if it were wet or it was walking or dancing. Touch is one of the most important tools for Mindfulness.
10. Breathing with help
A great kid-friendly breathing exercise is called “breathing with help.” Ask the children to lie on their back as you a stuffed animal on their belly. Ask your child to focus on the rise and fall of the stuffed animal as they breathe in and out. You can ask them to control their breathing by asking them to lower and raise the stuffed animal slowly.
The above 10 Activities will help the children stimulate their senses and most of the Brain Training Programs help the children with different type of activities that would help them reach the state of mindfulness hence bringing about amazing results.
One of the Pioneers in this field is BRAINY – A division of Brain Child Learning which helps in Brain Training for Children in the age group of 7 to 16 year olds. Their signature program - Brain Development Program In India incorporates a lot of activities which helps children achieve mindfulness and thus helps in the development of their senses. The five basic senses that we have is the sense of Sight, touch, hear, taste and smell. If you look at the above activities all these are revolving around these five sense.
The Blended training provides all round development of the brain with multiple benefits. One of the components is the Memory Training course which focuses on retention and recall of long term and short term memory.
To know more you can refer to www.brainy.co.in for more information on their training methodology or Google the term “Brain Training Course” or “Brain Training Program” to get a list of training available for helping develop the senses and achieve mindfulness in children.
