Research: Mindful Parenting Decreases Aggression, Noncompliance, and Self-Injury in Children with Autism

Mothers who are trained to parent with a clear, calm mind may have better behaved children. This study was designed to see if parents of children with autism could reduce their children's problem behavior by changing their own behavior when working with their children (mindfulness). The authors gave the mothers training on how to improve the mother's behavior (mindfulness training) and the authors found that the children's behavior improved. The mothers were also happier about how they worked with their children. The authors believe that the same training would help teachers working with children with autism. The authors state that this is one of the first studies on mindfulness training and more and better studies are needed.