Aromatherapy: Your Child’s Nose Helps What Your Child Knows
Willa Barber, MBA
It is after 8:00 and the usually asleep baby is still awake and seems uncomfortable. His parents perform the usual diaper check, assess when the child last ate, and look whether something may be sticking the child from his clothing. After a complete investigation, parents have no concerns using lavender infused baby products to help their infant relax and fall asleep. As the child grows, using scents to alter mood or create a more relaxed state seldom occurs to these same parents. We parents need to consider that scents can also support the middle learner with activities like sleep but also beyond to things like academic emotion, which will be defined later. Aromatherapy, as this modern term suggests, is useful in education and has been studied to be a successful option for middle learners.
Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of essential oils for many purposes to include stress management. With a history dating back to prehistoric times, aromatic plants and plant extracts were cosmetics, were used in religious ceremonies and for embalming mummies. There are medicinal uses today for pain relief, stress and sleep support as well. It is this use that sparked studies with students to understand how aromas encourage what is referred to in the regular empirical article posted by the International Journal of Psychology, “The influence of ambient aroma on middle school students” academic emotions” that gives us insight into the impact of fragrance use from plant essential oils and how they influenced academic emotion in a positive way.
Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of essential oils for many purposes to include stress management. With a history dating back to prehistoric times, aromatic plants and plant extracts were cosmetics, were used in religious ceremonies and for embalming mummies. There are medicinal uses today for pain relief, stress and sleep support as well. It is this use that sparked studies with students to understand how aromas encourage what is referred to in the regular empirical article posted by the International Journal of Psychology, “The influence of ambient aroma on middle school students” academic emotions” that gives us insight into the impact of fragrance use from plant essential oils and how they influenced academic emotion in a positive way.
The article states, “Academic emotion refers to a variety of emotional experiences related to students studies in the learning process, including happiness, calm, anxiety, depression and so on. It includes not only the various emotions experienced by students after learning of their academic success or failure, but also the emotional experiences of students during classroom learning, daily homework [home practice] or examinations (Dong and Yu, 2007). Studies have shown that academic emotion has an important influence on their mental health and academic achievements (Respondek et al., 2017; Zhu & Zhang, 2017)...It is particularly important to determine how to improve their academic emotional state.”
The summary of the findings of the studies “revealed that the middle school students preferred the aroma of sweet orange essential oil. Also, the ambient aroma of this substance could mitigate the reduction of positive academic emotions and improve negative academic emotions in the studied school students over time. The study provides new ideas for schools to create a positive educational environment”. While sweet orange was the fragrance of preference during the study, consider the following also:
Rosemary
Lavender
Peppermint
Lemon
Cinnamon
Aromatherapy is a 2.59 billion dollar industry. Its basis is essential oils derived from plants and plant extracts. This means that in addition to supportive research consumers agree that scents matter to our quality of life. It stands to reason since smell is one of our five senses that it serves as a major way to engage. Scents do change things for us and should be part of every parent’s arsenal to support the progress of their child. Northridge Oaks, a retailer of natural products, posted an article “Essential Oils in the Classroom” that describes outcomes available with aromatherapy and ideas and directives for safe use. It lists benefits as these:
Improved Focus and Concentration - Students can experience heightened focus, enabling them to better absorb and retain information
Reduced Stress and Anxiety - Essential oils like lavender and bergamot have calming properties that can help reduce anxiety and promote relaxation
Enhanced Cognitive Function - These oils in the classroom can create an environment that supports optimal cognitive performance and fosters a love for learning
Northridge Oak also offers suggestions for classroom use that will work well in the home environment. Consider some of the ways your middle learner can take advantage of natural scents in daily home practice assignments even if oils are not acceptable during school hours.
Keep a scent-diffuser in the home practice space
Use a personal inhaler
Create an oil roll on (my personal favorite)
While some school systems oppose aromatherapy, it is an age-old option for parents seeking to help a middle learner relax and focus to perform more effectively at school and at home. Just like lavender in a bath works well for babies, a meaningful scent will do the same for tweeners and teens.
Aromatherapy might be the missing piece in your child’s learning environment. Which scent would you try first? Share this with a fellow parent or teacher who’s ready to think outside the textbook.
References:
Global Aromatherapy Market Report and Forecast 2055-2034
The influence of ambient aroma on middle school students academic emotions