Chapter 4: Analysis
5.3 Commentary on Key Findings in Relation to the Literature Review
the practice. Most children during the second interviews indicated a sense of increased resiliency, feelings of having resources to cope in adverse situations and feelings of control over their lives. A shift was interpreted in their ability to enjoy new things and notice and accept change. The children reported experiences of their autism being different and not noticing their autism.
friendships in interview two, but they also expressed the importance of being with other people in the group. A sense of belonging and unity started to develop as they shared similar experiences. Bögels et al. (2008) noted that mindfulness improves mindful awareness and other research has reported that mindfulness predicted high levels of self-esteem, low levels of social anxiety (Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011) and increased social skills (Beauchemin et al., 2012). The development of improved awareness throughout this research, as found in previous research (Hill & Updegraff, 2012), could have led the children to notice themselves in relation to other children and feel a
stronger connection and sense of belonging. Perhaps this enabled their self-esteem to increase, which could have consequently decreased anxiety.
5.3.3 Worries. This research supported previous findings that mindfulness is beneficial for anxiety (Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011; Semple, et al., 2005; Lee et al., 2008; Semple et al., 2010) and reduces stress and improves well-being (Kuyken et al., 2013) because the children reported positive effects on their well-being due to the increase in calm feelings. Children reported their experiences of worries to be less severe following completion of the mindfulness programme. These experiences of reduced worries and increased calm feelings clearly relate to other themes, such as their connection with the environment, themselves and others.
5.3.4 Perceptions of the self. There seemed to be a shift in self-perception from a mostly negative outlook to a more positive belief in coping abilities. This was
consistent with findings from previous research, which found mindfulness to have an impact on levels of optimism and positive emotions (Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010).
5.3.5 Connecting with the environment. Me described her experience of mindfulness helping her form a gestalt. This experience diverged from the other participants. Happe ́and Frith (2006) discuss the weak central coherence of children with ASD and this has been suggested to lead to heightened anxiety. For Me, it seemed mindfulness gave her the experience of gestalt and this benefit to central coherence could relate to reduced anxiety levels.
Stories of change and acceptance of new experiences were told. Weare (2012) reports that mindfulness contributes to executive functioning and Carson and Langer (2006, p.26) state mindfulness can “increase cognitive flexibility and therefore behavioural flexibility and the ability to adapt to one’s environment in a meaningful manner”. This research supported these benefits with respect to this particular group of children.
5.3.6 Views of autism. No previous research to date has examined how
mindfulness relates to children’s views of having autism. Autism was expressed to be a barrier at the beginning of the programme but described as “different” after completing the mindfulness course. Many factors may have contributed to the change in children’s experience of their autism, but possibly the benefits of mindfulness in increasing awareness, emotional regulation (Singh et al., 2013) and positive emotion found by previous research (Hill & Updegraff, 2012; (Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010) could have influenced the change in lived experience.
5.3.7 Relation to key theories in autism. Clearly, the areas in which mindfulness benefitted the children are related to theories of ASD deficits such as mindblindness, central coherence and executive functioning.
As outlined in Chapter One, restricted, repetitive behaviours and interests, problems with attention management and emotional self-regulation, that children with autism often present with, are proposed to be a result of executive dysfunction (Frederickson, 2008; Lerner et al., 2012). It emerged from this research that children were more able in their ability to notice and accept change after the intervention and according to previous research, it could be seen that this awareness helped contribute to the emotional benefits reported such as the increased sense of calmness and positivity.
Previous research has identified that anxiety in children may be caused by weak central coherence (Happe ́ & Frith, 2006) and Me explored accounts of a reduction in her worries and an experience of ‘gestalt’ or central coherence. It has been suggested that weakness in theory of mind, the ability to mentalise other people’s feelings and intentions (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985), could lead children to misinterpret situations in which they may need to understand another person’s point of view, and this lack of
social understanding could cause anxiety. The children expressed the importance of being with other people in the group and the sense of belonging and unity started to develop as they shared similar experiences. Possibly improved mentalisation skills could have led to the reported shift in worries.
5.3.8 Summary of the research findings. This research has highlighted the value of examining the experiences of mindfulness practice. In the case of this group of children with anxiety and autism, these experiences have been positive and children engaged with the practical and concrete teaching of mindfulness concepts. The children’s accounts did not attribute much importance to the concepts of mindfulness, so they appeared to experience mindfulness as a ‘task-orientated’ activity. Children explored positive changes in their experiences of having autism, their experiences of worries, their abilities to cope with worries, their feelings of empowerment and their resiliency. The children described of a shift in their ability to enjoy new things and notice and accept change. The literature review highlighted a need for further research into mindfulness with children, particularly whether it is suitable for children with additional needs, where levels of language, cognition and attention may create barriers to access (Iyaduri, 2013), and this research has highlighted the suitability of an adapted mindfulness programme for children with ASD.