It used to take Jessica Harrison?s four-and-a-half-year-old, Victoria, an hour and a half to fall asleep every night. A bubbly and energetic girl, who has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), she?d get wound up and difficult to settle. But that changed when Jessica introduced meditation into Victoria?s bedtime routine.
They use an app called Louise Haye Affirmations. A voice tells Victoria to breathe in, while she watches a bubble blowing up with the word ?breathe? inside. The bubble retracts as she breathes out.
Then they pick positive affirmations from the meditation, like I love my body. My body is precious, and I treat it with love. Victoria gets to say, then type, the affirmations.
With the camera in selfie mode, she looks at the screen, and repeats her affirmation. Seeing, hearing, speaking then typing words makes it tangible and reinforcing, says Jessica.
?Victoria?s smiling as she?s watching herself and you see her relaxing as she breathes.?
Finally, the app congratulates a now-calm Victoria for completing the meditation. ?Then Victoria passes the phone to me, rolls over and goes to sleep,? says Jessica.
And Victoria also gained a new tool through meditation that she uses throughout the day. ?If she starts to have a meltdown I remind her to breathe. She has learned this helps her to calm down. We have not had hour-long meltdowns, which used to happen often, in the year and a half we?ve done mindfulness breathing,? says Jessica.

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