This symposium addressed developmental issues in contemplative education with a focus on several forms of mindfulness training for young people across age groups and in various settings. An interactive, experiential and analytical format will integrate demonstrations of promising school-based mindfulness practices, scientific presentations, and discussion in a contemplative format.

Overview
Mainstream schools are increasingly integrating various contemplative practices within standard curriculum. As heightened media coverage suggests, the public is very interested in applications for school-based contemplative techniques. The scientific and education research communities are also devoting significant attention to this new development, however, insufficient research exists to guide curricular development in this specific area. As school-based practice, public interest and research converge, the most important and pressing questions concern how to identify the most promising developmentally appropriate contemplative practices.

Mindfulness education is one of the most popular and widely used contemplative methodologies. There are myriad mindfulness programs in schools across the nation, however, little consensus regarding what types of practices work best with children of specific ages. The effective and appropriate use of mindfulness practices with children calls for a careful examination of how contemplative practices may be adapted to meet developmental needs with attention to multiple domains: cognitive, biological, socio-emotional, and spiritual across each stage.

To date, the empirical evidence is extremely limited. Given the potential inherent in contemplative educational programming, this meeting was convened to bring together experts in the fields of child development to explore how mindfulness practices might contribute to desirable outcomes in youth development by promoting the development of self-regulation of cognitive and emotional functions.

The symposium matched case studies of school-based mindfulness methodologies with researchers. Each team focused the lens of child development on a demonstrated mindfulness technique. By pairing classroom educators with academicians, we aimed to address translational issues between practice and theory.

Dr. Dan Siegel, noted UCLA psychiatrist and author of The Mindful Brain opened the meeting with the keynote talk.