Study: Lehigh Valley students benefit from mindfulness skills

Marvine Elementary School Principal Eric Fontanez will sometimes see students close their eyes and breathe in and out, counting their breaths.

It’s obvious students are using that mindfulness technique to help stay focused. It also signals to a teacher that they’re trying to control their emotions.

Students and teachers at the Bethlehem school learn mindfulness strategies such as paying attention to their breaths through the Shanthi Project, an education nonprofit that provides 16 sessions in eight weeks.

The program is part of the school’s move toward implementing trauma-informed practices, Fontanez said. He credits the school’s drastic reduction in code of conduct behavioral referrals to the school’s shift in that direction.

“It’s all about relationships between students and staff, and students and students. Trauma informed projects like Shanthi help teachers dig in a little bit and build those relationships,” he said. “It’s a good experience, kids are happier and want to be here.”

A recent study from Muhlenberg

College drilled down more specific benefits of the Shanthi Project’s mindfulness program at Marvine. Their work, based on a program for kindergarten through second graders in the fall of 2019, was recently published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies.

They found that teachers reported a 14% increase in students’ positive behaviors after the program and an 18% decrease in students’ problem behaviors. They also found that teacher buy-in was critical, with those implementing mindfulness practices outside of the program seeing more positive results.

“Sometimes, there’s a rush in schools to do things like mindfulness because it sounds really great,” said Mark Sciutto, a Muhlenberg psychology professor. “The combination of the research and program together has made this valuable.”

For Lehigh Valley several schools, the Shanthi Project helped students and teachers recognize when their emotions are spiraling, and gives them tools to help remain focused on the moment, said Shanthi Project founder Denise Veres. They teach children to listen to ambient noise, or a bell ringing, pay attention to their breathing and be aware of where they are. They also talk about how students’ brains work when they’re feeling different emotions.

Teachers generally say they have more teaching minutes after the program, and interventionists say the techniques help get kids back in the classroom when they might otherwise be sent to the office, Veres said.

In the study, Veres and Sciutto found teacher buy-in was important to the results, and the more they participated alongside their students and found ways to implement mindfulness outside the Shanthi sessions, the better the outcome.

Now, the Shanthi Project is pivoting toward supporting teachers, said Maureen Wendling, the executive director of the Shanthi Project.

“We’re going to begin with teaching teachers mindfulness for themselves, so when they’re in the classroom, they are able to be trauma informed and offer themselves compassion and be ready for the day ahead,” she said.