Mindful M.A.T. Time for Preschoolers - Pilot Study: Mindful Movement, Attention/Awareness, and Thoughts Time

The Mindful M.A.T. Time for Early Years program was designed to use developmentally appropriate practices, play-based activities, and games/stories, utilising hands-on props and active learning, to promote mindful movement, attention/awareness, and thinking skills. It was designed specifically for preschool children and incorporate activities that focus on: (i) breathing, (ii) working with thoughts and emotions, (iii) psychoeducation, (iv) awareness of senses, (v) bodyscan and muscle relaxation, (vi) kindness, empathy, and gratitude practices, and (viii) mindful movement. The program also includes weekly tasks which can be completed at home by parents and family. The program consists of classroom teachers implementing two fun and engaging mindfulness-based activities (which take around 5-10 minutes each), face-to-face, 3 times a week (36 sessions in total) for the whole class, plus recommended storybooks each week. During the initial 12-week program, there is a sequenced checklist of games and activities, with many repeated throughout, as ongoing practice has been found to be critical for the effectiveness of mindfulness. Activity topics and examples include; (i) breathing – focus on belly breathing with “rock buddy”, (ii) working with thoughts and emotions – imagining “thoughts as bubbles” (iii) psycho-education – “brain as a house”, (iv) awareness of senses – “no look” object-touching game (v) body-scan and muscle relaxation – “robot shutting down”, (vi) kindness, empathy, and gratitude – “secret sender” letters, and (viii) mindful movement – “batteries on low”. Intervention teachers will be provided with an easy-to-follow program manual explaining the fun and simple mindfulness-based classroom activities (including extensions and modifications), curriculum/framework aligned activity lesson plans, and a 40-minute educational training video. They will attend a 1-day PD workshop, delivered by the program author and psychologist, covering mindfulness theory, research, and program implementation. Props and storybooks are a core feature of the program and are provided to intervention groups. No direct measures of intervention monitoring, adherence, or fidelity have been included.