None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Smiling Mind is a not for profit organisation that develops app-based mindfulness programs to support the wellbeing of children, young people and adults. Smiling Mind has previously developed mindfulness-based programs for primary and secondary school age children. In partnership with Early Childhood Australia (ECA) they have developed a mindfulness program for pre-school age children, called the Early Minds program. The program has been designed to be implemented by trained early childhood educators within Early Learning Centres (ELCs). Educators will be trained by two online learning modules prior to implementing the program, which consists of 8-weeks of mindfulness–based meditations and activities. The aim of this pilot study, led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of conducting the Early Minds program within selected Victorian ELCs. Educator’s experience of the program, use of the program, and barriers to use will be examined. Secondary aims will explore preliminary impacts of the program on educator and caregiver reported child wellbeing and behaviour. Educators will be randomised into the program group or the usual care group. Children will be placed in the group their educator is in. Participants will complete surveys at three months post-randomisation to assess primary outcomes.
Interventions
The intervention is a preschool mindfulness program called the Early Minds program. The program has been written and developed by Smiling Mind in partnership with Early Childhood Australia (ECA). It has been designed to be delivered by early childhood educators, within Early Learning Centres (ELCs), during standard operating hours. Educators in the intervention arm are trained by Smiling Mind via two online learning modules. Each module will take approximately one hour to complete. Intervention
The intervention is a preschool mindfulness program called the Early Minds program. The program has been written and developed by Smiling Mind in partnership with Early Childhood Australia (ECA). It has been designed to be delivered by early childhood educators, within Early Learning Centres (ELCs), during standard operating hours. Educators in the intervention arm are trained by Smiling Mind via two online learning modules. Each module will take approximately one hour to complete. Intervention educators are provided with a program manual describing the program activities and describing any props useful for implementation. The program is an 8-week intervention consisting of mindfulness-based meditations and simple mindfulness activities. The meditations and activities will be conducted at least three times per week and last for between two and 15 minutes, depending on the activity. The activities are whole group or small group activities. The meditations will be played from recordings from the Smiling Mind website/app. The activities will be face-to-face using props and/or other learning tools as required. The program is designed to be flexible, with educator’s choosing the components they implement and how frequently beyond the recommended 3 sessions per week they are conducted. Parents of children in the intervention arm will have access to the meditations via the Smiling Mind website/app, to use at home. The app-based meditations are based on the following themes: body scan; gratitude; breath, curiosity; sounds. The program activities are based on the five learning outcomes for children birth to 5 years, presented in the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (2009). The themes for the program activities are: children... are effective communicators; are confident and involved learners; have a strong sense of wellbeing; are connected with and contribute to their world; have a strong sense of identity; and movement. Activities with and without movement have been developed. As part of the evaluation, fidelity will be assessed. Educators will be provided with a folder containing a daily checklist of all program meditations and activities. Educators will tick which meditations and/or activities they conducted, how frequently, and the proportion of the activity completed each day. Dose will be assessed using class attendance lists.
Sponsors
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
3 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Early Childhood Educators – working within the 3-year old- and/or 4-year old rooms at Early Learning Centres (ELCs) recruited by Smiling Mind to participate in the trial Children and caregivers of children - enrolled and attending the ELC rooms lead by educators talking part in the study at the time of the baseline measures
Exclusion criteria
English language skills that precludes the ability to provide informed consent Inability to complete the study surveys, written at a grade 6 reading level (the option of completion with a member of the researcher team will be offered)
Outcome results
None listed