Fisher-Price's Meditation Mouse is a plush toy with a gentle personality designed to teach toddlers and preschoolers mindfulness using guided meditation tracks.
If that sounds like an improbable task, it can't be any harder than calming a toddler mid-tantrum or helping an antsy 4-year-old crawl back into bed for the 10th time in an hour. Parents who know either of these battles well may look to Meditation Mouse for clutch assistance. Available for $29.99 from major retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Target, Meditation Mouse is a compelling entry into an emerging category: mindfulness products for the two-to-five set.
To test Meditation Mouse, I introduced it to my reluctant 2-year-old, then demonstrated it to a researcher who studies youth mindfulness. While the results varied — my toddler is very opinionated — I can recommend Meditation Mouse as an innovative approach to introducing young kids to mindfulness meditation. I appreciate that it combines the interactivity of a huggable toy with two calming guided daytime and nighttime meditations, but recognize the quality of a parent's experience with Meditation Mouse will depend on their expectations and how they model mindfulness for their child in general.
How does Meditation Mouse work?
With its daytime setting, Meditation Mouse narrates a series of mindful movements and a breathing exercise, inviting the child to follow along for a soothing three-minute meditation break. For nighttime use, the toy offers a pint-sized body scan for relaxation, a series of breathing exercises, then about 14 minutes of ambient music, ocean waves, nature sounds, or white noise that eventually trails off. Altogether, that 20-minute wind-down is meant to help a child peacefully drift off to sleep. An alternate option lets a child listen only to sounds of their choice for 20 minutes before they fade away.
This sounds downright idyllic, which is exactly why I knew not to expect anything close to it when testing Meditation Mouse with my 2-year-old. First of all, I've written previously about how sticking with your agenda as a parent when introducing mindfulness to a child is a recipe for disaster. Second, once I put Meditation Mouse in my daughter's hands, she quickly demonstrated that every child is unique, no matter how well toy designers know their audience.
She began by cuddling the mouse, but when its young-girl voice began the daytime meditation (Hi there, friend!) and its belly began lighting up from within, she looked utterly confused and scared, threw it on the floor, told me to turn it off, and didn't touch it again for weeks. It probably didn't help that I hadn't reviewed the instructions closely and turning it off wasn't as intuitive as I expected, which prolonged her panic. Pressing the belly for three seconds will do the trick, but I kept fiddling with settings on the control panel, accessible from the velcro fasteners on the mouse's back. The good news, especially for parents of toddlers and preschoolers, is that the plush material can be tossed in the wash after removing the electronic unit.
While my daughter wasn't interested in Meditation Mouse's different settings, my other expert happily let me demonstrate them. Dr. Naheed Hosan, Ph.D., who studies youth mindfulness at the University of Alberta and a former elementary school teacher, got to meet Meditation Mouse via Zoom and could immediately identify things she did and didn't like. She appreciated that the toy transforms the concepts of mindfulness and meditation into a touchable, tangible toy, which can help young children grasp abstract ideas.
The narration is also at a child's level. When inviting children to breathe slowly, the recorded track references going at a turtle's pace. When asking them to sway gently, it uses a swaying palm tree as an example. The relatability is great for children exploring new practices around stillness that are hard for any human to master, much less highly energetic kids. Hosan also liked that Meditation Mouse gave encouragement to listeners with a "good job!" at the conclusion of a track.
She noted that the age range and voice could create challenges depending on the child. Amongst toddlers and preschoolers, there's a massive difference between ages two and five. While a 5-year-old can probably sit through a three-minute meditation, that may be too high of an expectation for a child who's not even potty trained. And I was glad to know my daughter wasn't the only person struck by Meditation Mouse's voice. It's lovely and sweet but sounds entirely human, a contrast that can be jarring.
Manage your Meditation Mouse expectations
When I asked Hosan about the research on mindfulness meditation amongst toddler and preschoolers, she noted that there isn't much at all. Of the 90 peer-reviewed studies she could identify through one search, most looked at mindful parenting. While Fisher-Price makes no claims that the toy will improve a child's sleep, reduce tantrum severity, or boost mood, I can absolutely imagine that some parents, having read about the importance of mindfulness, will expect far more from Meditation Mouse than it is designed to deliver. To avoid this, Hosan recommends that parents treat Meditation Mouse like any other toy rather than betting on it to solve their child's afternoon tantrums or nighttime restlessness.
"There's a lot of promise," says Hosan. "I just would never want someone to buy this toy and think to themselves, 'My kid's going to become so mindful just because I bought this toy.' I think maybe it's about how you use it, but temper temper temper your expectations."
Importantly, Lisa Lohiser, Ed.D., manager of early childhood development research at Fisher-Price Play Lab, told me that the company thinks of Meditation Mouse as an opportunity to bond with a child as well as an entry point into mindfulness meditation. In the beginning, at least, parents shouldn't plop the toy into a child's lap and then walk away, hoping to return to a refreshed and relaxed toddler. Instead, parents should do the meditation alongside their child, including the movements and breath work. That kind of "scaffolding" can encourage their interest and participation.
In general, parents using Meditation Mouse should also model mindfulness and meditation for their children when the toy isn't around. That can mean pausing to breathe deeply during moments of stress, a quick body scan in the car before school drop-off, or focusing only on playing with a child for periods of time (ahem, put the phone down for 10 uninterrupted minutes). Such modeling demonstrates the many ways mindfulness can be practiced and reinforces what they're learning from the toy. Consider it a bonus that these techniques don't cost a penny.
A low-risk investment
After weeks of neglect, I finally got my daughter to pick up Meditation Mouse again when I invited her to play with it on the couch, side-by-side with me. We tried the daytime meditation once and did the mindfulness movements together, though she was less open to slow, controlled breathing. She asked for it a second time, but told me to put it away afterward. That's what I consider success. I never attempted the nighttime meditation because she is, knock on wood, a happy sleeper who doesn't protest when the lights go down. I've made my share of parenting mistakes, but messing with my child's perfectly good sleep routine will not be one of them.
Though Meditation Mouse wasn't a home run in my house, Hosan's feedback and Lohiser's insight helped me put into focus why I'd recommend it to some parents. There may be worthy candidates for comparison out there, but I've never seen a product like this. It takes versions of the guided meditations from a podcast or app that parents may already play for their child and puts them into a cuddly, cute mouse. This could very well be the clincher for kids annoyed or bored by meditation tracks.
The price point of $29.99 is high for families on a budget. For parents willing to spend on soothing or sleep-related products, Meditation Mouse is a low-risk investment compared to a fancy clock or camping out next to a toddler's bed all night. Plus, it can be used during the daytime too, including as a comforting stuffie in non-meditation mode. It's also worth remembering that the internet offers plenty of free techniques for parents to practice with their kids. For those nervous about paying $30, perhaps try exercises from this Mindful.org list first.
I do worry that the market will be flooded with plush "mindfulness" toys that aren't thoughtful or make claims unsupported by scientific evidence. No doubt that day will come because Fisher-Price is an industry leader and there are bound to be imitations. Still, I'm hopeful that the emerging trend helps parents explore and model mindfulness with their children.
Topics Social Good Family & Parenting
