WHAT'S NEW ON THE BOOKSHELF?
Comforting Book of
Meditations to Help
Your Child Sleep
F
rom “Hygge” to parenting, the Danish way
of doing things is often widely talked about,
and one of Denmark’s latest exports is no
exception. The Children’s Meditations In My
Heart by Gitte Winter Graugaard enables
children to fall asleep within minutes.
Now available in three different languag-
es, this heartwarming collection of meditations is
changing bedtime routines the world over.
The book contains four meditations in total, and each
is written for parents to read aloud to their children.
Children are taught the importance of self-esteem
and self-love, and the overriding message is one of
reassurance, enabling the children to drift off into
calming, reparative sleep, their hearts full of love.
Sleep, or rather the lack of it, Graugaard believes, is
one of the first indications for parents that some-
thing is not quite right. In today’s technological age,
children are bombarded with endless messages and
impressions, overt and subliminal, and they wrangle
with expectations both perceived and real, which
greatly impacts their mental well-beings. Worry is of-
ten an overriding factor, and many lie awake at night,
unable to “switch off.” Research indicates that chil-
dren who consistently miss out on sleep can show
symptoms similar to reactions we see in children
with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Graugaard’s book has proven invaluable for many
parents, and the feedback from parents of children
with autism has been especially positive:
“My seven year old has autism and ADHD and suffers
terribly with anxiety. Sometimes he doesn’t fall asleep
70 | Autism Parenting Magazine | Issue 71
until 11.30 PM. I read him the first story tonight for the
first time, and he was asleep within 10 minutes, and he
stayed asleep. Long may it last! Thank you.”
The Children’s Meditations In My Heart is available
from www.amazon.co.uk priced £14.95 ($17.37)
for a hard copy, £4.97 ($5.77) for a Kindle copy, and
£5.09 ($5.91) for a pdf download from www.room-
forreflection.com.