There is a growing body of research that demonstrates that training children in mind-body techniques promotes greater capacity to be in and maintain attention to present-moment experience with an attitude of openness, curiosity and self-compassion. This has short and long-term benefits in physical, emotional and cognitive wellbeing.

What children will gain from the Tournesol Kids Program:

• Improved attention: focus and flexibility are dependent on maturation of executive functions (working memory, planning, inference, empathy).  The T-kids program targets these functions through its mind-body exercises. 

• Improved communication skills: The T-kids program specifically targets developing the art of conversation and broadening the range of emotional vocabulary both essential for successful social and emotional engagement in the world. 

• Improved emotional regulation and empathy: utilizing non-violent communication techniques, students will  improve their ability to accurately detect emotional/sensory cues related to physiological reactions to stressful events and connect them to underlying needs.  This brings greater empathy that is accompanied by improved regulation, generating positive strategies that temper and influence the emotional response. Emotional regulation confers benefits in terms of health, well-being, social connection, and competence with life tasks
• Improved stress-management: by learning simple coping techniques, students will learn how to identify and release stress on a daily basis.

• Improved self-awareness: results from body-mind practices that improve communication between body, mind and feelings. 

• Improved self-esteem: dignity in diversity is achieved by learning to recognize different temperament styles. 

• Improved Growth Mindset:  learning to recognize fixed mind thinking, the causes and how to shift towards growth mind thinking.

• Improved participation, cooperation and curiosity: results from empowering students to teach each other skills they have learned.