It's a small study, but it's an interesting one.Recent research in the journal Current Issues in Education shows that the twice-daily practice of transcendental meditation in school may improve attention and reduce stress, anxiety and impulsive behavior in children diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A group of 10 children between the ages 11 and 14 and diagnosed with ADHD were the subjects of the pilot study. All of the students were attending a school for those with learning disabilities.
Because there was no control group, researchers compared teacher reports and students' self-assessments and performance on a wide range of cognitive tests and surveys before and after three months of twice-daily 10-minute sessions of transcendental meditation. Unlike other forms of meditation that may be more complex and require sustained focus, transcendental meditation focuses on a single sound to quiet the mind and was chosen for the study because of its simplicity.
For more on the study read this piece in the Los Angeles Times. What are you thoughts on the research? Should transcendental meditation be used more often to treat anxiety disorders? Should more schools look at offering meditation programs? As always, feel free to comment below!
Photo by Kanzeon Zen Center on Flickr.
2 comments:
Interesting! I was diagnosed with ADHD as long as I could remember and just learned to cope rather than taking medications. Given this training a long time ago rather than just having to learn it with age may have helped a lot.
Great post. I really appreciate it.
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