Cultivating Mindfulness to Alleviate Boredom in School-Age Children

Purpose

Occupational therapy, speech language pathology, and physical therapy are client-centered professions that rely on a collaborative relationship. Through this collaborative relationship, clients set their own goals and select meaningful activities. However, what happens to the relationship if clients lack engagement in their daily occupations because they are constantly experiencing boredom? How can the therapist allow the clients to see that they are the agent of change? Autonomy and choice are the foundation of a client-centered practice. ¹ What happens if the client chooses to be bored?

Everyone has experienced boredom, “the state of being weary and restless through lack of interest.” ² Conversely, mindfulness is “the practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis.” ³ It has been suggested that boredom in the industrialized world is caused by personal factors including personality, difficulty with attending, and negative attitudes, rather than deprivation of experiences or opportunities. ⁴ In this article, the authors reason how mindfulness can be cultivated to alleviate boredom in school-age children.

For our school-age children, it is a great concern when they are bored with their studies. “The onus is placed on the school, or home, to redirect the first transitory boredom of a child that is a sign of some human need not being met.” ⁵ Occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, and physical therapists strive to assuage that unmet need, but what if the need is superseded by the boredom? To counteract this unfortunate state of our educational system, professionals must take on the task of alleviating the resultant boredom.

There is the perception that “people are bored when they have nothing interesting to do.” ⁶ Our school-age children have many activities and tasks to do throughout their day. Children have a multitude of opportunities to learn and play. If they are bored while participating in various occupations, what is the solution? “We are bombarded with brighter images and louder noises” and “in order to cope with these stimuli, we have probably become desensitized, becoming bored more easily and needing even greater stimulation to overcome boredom.” ⁶

Methods

A review of the literature was utilized to meet four objectives: establish sources of boredom, distinguish between occupational deprivation and excessive opportunities, delve specifically into the societal aspects of boredom occurring in the United States, and make recommendations for a multidisciplinary approach to boredom. Databases such as CINAHL, EBSCOhost, and PubMed were searched using the terms “mindfulness,” “school,” and “boredom” and similar variations. Articles selected were published between 2005 and 2017, peer-reviewed, and were relevant to the four objectives. Articles were excluded if they were not relevant to the multidisciplinary approach. Four articles met the inclusion criteria.

Results

Occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, and physical therapists need to collaborate and put forth an effort to provide school-age children the tools to cope and attend. Mindfulness is the foundation that will allow the shift from a bored state to a present state. There are three fundamental components to teaching students how to be present and practice mindfulness. Intention, attention, and attitude are the three elements utilized in the model of mindfulness. ⁷ Students can start by setting their intention (e.g., to not be bored), then they can tune into their environment and personal feelings while experiencing this boredom. Finally, the students can acknowledge which qualities they are bringing to this moment (e.g., are they curious, nonstriving, and open).

Martin et al. offer a unique viewpoint on occupational deprivation and boredom. They believe that boredom may not solely be the result of occupational deprivation, but the result of excessive opportunities and choices. ⁴ School-age children who go home after school have the ability to watch television, play a game on the computer, and talk on the phone simultaneously. In contrast, boredom and occupational deprivation could be the result of exclusion from participation. ⁸ Children can lack the opportunity to play in a game of kickball at recess because they were not picked for either team.

Regardless of the reason for boredom, there is the potential to find satisfaction in the simplest activities if done in a mindful way. ⁴ The children at home after school can fully attend to the telephone conversation they are having with their grandmother by closing his or her eyes and listening to their grandmother's words. The children sitting down at recess can notice the sun on their face, the grass tickling underneath their legs, and the wind rustling through their hair.

Boredom in school-age children can impact their mental, physical, and emotional growth. If children cannot attend to an arithmetic lesson because writing on the chalkboard instead of the smartboard bores them, then boredom may cause their understanding of that math lesson to be stunted. Not participating in the obstacle course during gym due to boredom with the design of the course may result in students' physical coordination being slowed. Children who are unable to listen to their guidance counselor's explanation of the death of a beloved family pet because the counselor's voice bores them may not gain the insight necessary to emotionally cope with loss. Mental, physical, and emotional growth leads to maturity in children. “It is understood that maturity is a process of growth characterized by the full development of all human potentialities.” ⁹ If children are bored by the interactions that attain maturation, how will they grow?

There are potential social and economic consequences of boredom in school-age children. Wright et al. found “that the meaning and context of the occupation are particularly important in challenge-skills, enjoyment and mindfulness experiences.” ¹⁰ This has significant implications for occupational therapists and occupational scientists. The societal repercussions include increased crime and vandalism. Young criminal offenders report a lack of engagement in productive occupations while being under challenged, resulting in a high degree of boredom. ⁵ Economically, a rise in crime and vandalism can cause taxes to increase to repair the damages, fund the judicial system, and fund the jails.

A recent study explored the influence of spirituality and mindfulness on maturity. Jong found that “when mindfulness and spirituality were practiced together, the amount of combined incremental influence on maturity was significantly greater than the amounts of incremental influence mindfulness and spirituality each alone had on maturity.” ⁹ The study demonstrates that mindfulness and spirituality possess parallels such as awareness, insight, and compassion, highlighting their connection to one another. ⁹ Mindfulness alone can still benefit an individual's maturation process; therefore, mindfulness can increase the level of maturity of school-age children. Mindful children will develop their ability to be in the moment and, in turn, be better-adjusted students who will be able to take on the increasing demands of life and school.

Discussion

“Evidence suggests that boredom is associated with inability to sustain attention and dissatisfaction as well as external factors such as monotony and occupational deprivation.” ⁴ We would like to offer our personal addition to the discussion that boredom could occur because as a whole, our society is used to constantly being distracted. We are programmed to check our emails while at dinner, text a friend while at work, and talk while driving. Our attention is constantly divided so that when it is time to select an occupation, we cannot decide because we do not know what we like or want to spend our time doing because we are never fully present. We wholeheartedly agree that “learning to do things in a more mindful way, aware of the richness of the present moment” ⁴ can eliminate boredom in our society where there is an excess of everything.

“The present moment exists in the here and now, and mindfulness is a means to become aware of it.” ¹¹ Occupational therapists, occupational scientists, speech language pathologists, and physical therapists have the opportunity to bring their clients into the present. These disciplines can be at the forefront of the increasing interest in the integration of mindfulness into the realm of education. ⁷

Occupational therapists, occupational scientists, speech language pathologists, and physical therapists need to recognize the sources of boredom, such as low situational demands (client has much higher abilities than demanded by a situation) or poor abilities (demands are too high for a client's abilities). In school-age children, those who “act out” tend to be bored because the schoolwork is too easy or too hard. For those children, the facilitation of developing mindfulness to eliminate boredom is critical.

Practitioners can assist in cultivating the core building blocks of mindfulness. For example, the occupational therapist can intervene with strategies to increase attention while the speech language pathologist can discuss the student's intention. The physical therapist can create challenging situations to increase the child's positive attitude with the occupational scientist homing in on the child's engagement in his or her education. Working together, the interdisciplinary team can integrate the fundamentals of mindfulness to increase the child's “open-heartedness towards the experience observed in the present moment, regardless of how pleasant or aversive it may be.” ⁹

“Boredom today appears to be a direct consequence and necessary by-product of technological advancement.” ⁵ The lack of meaning in daily occupations due to boredom is important for practitioners and researchers to understand and address. If boredom is inhibiting meaning, then a viable solution must be discussed and disseminated. The cultivation of mindfulness during occupational engagement to alleviate boredom is an area to explore. “Mindfulness is an important construct for occupational science consideration due to the discipline's foundational interest in exploring the many facets of occupational engagement and experience.” ¹¹

“The practice of mindfulness may lead one to be open to present experiences without holding onto negative thoughts and may also self-enhance towards positive impressions that lead to growth and maturation.” ⁹ Occupational therapists need to facilitate the “just right challenge” while providing the tools necessary to practice mindfulness. Occupational scientists need to investigate the enjoyment derived from challenges.

If boredom is not addressed, the perceived lack of meaning will impact many generations. Occupational therapists and occupational scientists must also take into account their own engagement, presence, and boredom when interacting with impressionable children. “A therapist has to practice being fully present and has to cultivate the energy of compassion in order to be helpful.” ¹²

Conclusion

Mindfulness has implications for alleviating boredom. Cultivating mindfulness can influence well-being as a way of being present in the world. ¹³ Occupational therapists, occupational scientists, speech language pathologists, and physical therapists can promote, teach, and practice mindfulness with clients. Being present and fully engaged can help to remove the monotony and boredom experienced. ¹⁴ “People will be more likely to find satisfaction in even simple activities if they do them in a mindful way, namely by focusing on the present moment and by being non-judgmental.” ⁴ Being present and nonjudgmental are skills that need to be developed and practiced, especially in school-age children.

Mindfulness has a natural fit with occupation and can be infused throughout a child's day. The interdisciplinary team can promote the practice of mindfulness during the school day. In the morning, the speech language pathologist can discuss the trip to school, how the school bus smelled, how loud the noise level of the school bus was, who the child sat next to, and how the seat felt. At snack, the occupational therapist can remind the student to slow down and taste his or her food by noticing the texture and smell. In the afternoon, the physical therapist can initiate a gross motor game that involves a mind–body connection to fully engage the student. Once the school day ends, the occupational scientist can facilitate a discussion of the student's occupational strengths and weaknesses. The team can modify interventions and adjust strategies to continue the cultivation of mindfulness.

“Becoming more mindful during occupational engagement might potentially allow and facilitate greater awareness of deeper layers of meaning inherent in those occupations.” ¹¹ Promoting mindfulness in school-age children can lead to future generations being open to present experiences without holding onto negative thoughts. ¹⁵ These students will practice mindfulness, enhancing their occupational participation, which, in turn, will lead to positive growth and maturation into adulthood.