Abstract:

In the last decades, the practices of mindfulness have shown to impact positively on adult people. The current approach investigates it as a valuable aid for the development of children, although with some difficulty. Starting from a definition of the mindfulness and a description of the main research in education, both for adults and for children, this paper aims to explore, through literature of reference, the potential effectiveness on pupils of mindfulness-based practices in schools. In fact, according to the recent research, the awareness training can be used to help improve relations between students and teachers, reducing the symptoms of ADHD, fostering emotions regulation, and reducing stress among students. There are also educational exercises for students about food and nutrition. Moreover, for children in pre-school age, exercises designed to cultivate the attention and to favor experiences of sensorimotor integration, typical of mindfulness practices, seem particularly suited to promote what could be defined as an integral education that deals with the development of totality and wholeness of small people to whom it applies, specifically in the field of education to a healthy nutrition.

Keywords:

mindfulness, awareness practices at school, pre-school age, formal context, pupils of school age.