Evidence-Led Practice

Our Research

The Big AL Foundation is built on evidence. Here is the science behind why breath education matters — and why it cannot wait.

Why It Matters

The Science Behind the Mission

Everything The Big AL Foundation does is grounded in peer-reviewed research. We don’t just believe breath education changes lives — the evidence confirms it.

From the impact of mouth breathing on children’s cognitive development, to the measurable benefits of diaphragmatic breathing on stress, anxiety and school performance — the research is clear, consistent and urgent.

Teaching a child to breathe correctly is not just relaxation — it is directly shifting the physiology of their nervous system from stress to calm. This is a trainable skill that every child can learn.

Peer-Reviewed Research

Tsakona et al. (2025)

The effect of diaphragmatic breathing as a complementary therapeutic strategy in stress of children and teenagers 6–18 years old. Children (Basel), 12(1), 59. Published January 2025 — NIH indexed.

13
peer-reviewed studies reviewed
6–18
age range studied (years)
2025
published January 2025
1. Diaphragmatic Breathing Activates the Calm Response
When children breathe through the nose using the diaphragm, it directly activates the parasympathetic nervous system — the branch responsible for calm, rest and recovery. It reduces the sympathetic ‘fight or flight’ response that drives anxiety, dysregulation and stress.
2. Measurable Improvements in Stress, Anxiety and School Performance
Across the studies reviewed, children in breathing intervention groups showed significant improvements in stress and anxiety, depression scores, school performance and quality of life.
In a 12-week programme with Greek primary school children aged 10–11, diaphragmatic breathing produced a 19% reduction in overall stress, a 22% improvement in emotional functioning, and a 16% improvement in school performance.
3. Safe, Simple and Free
Across all 13 studies, no adverse side effects were reported. The intervention requires no equipment, no medication and no clinical setting. It can be taught by educators, delivered in classrooms, and practised at home by families at any time.
A Critical Finding
Most adolescents have never been taught stress management techniques. The authors directly link this gap to a lifetime suicide attempt rate of 4% in young people.

This is not just a wellness issue. It is a prevention issue.

The Silent Epidemic

The Mouth Breathing Problem We Are Missing

By age five, an estimated 50% of children have transitioned to habitual mouth breathing. The consequences are wide-ranging, well-documented — and largely undetected.

😴 Sleep
Disrupted overnight recovery and poor sleep quality affecting brain development and behaviour.
🧠 Brain & Focus
Reduced oxygen delivery affecting cognition, working memory, reading comprehension and arithmetic.
⚡ Nervous System
Chronic activation of the sympathetic stress response producing anxiety, hyperactivity and emotional dysregulation.
🦷 Development
Impact on jaw, teeth alignment, facial structure and posture — measurable and progressive.
💭 Behaviour
Increased likelihood of anxiety, hyperactivity and emotional dysregulation that can be misattributed to ADHD.
A breath assessment is never conducted as part of the ADHD diagnostic pathway in Australia — despite compelling evidence that mouth breathing produces nervous system dysregulation, cognitive impairment and behavioural changes that closely mirror ADHD.
This is a systemic gap that breath education can begin to address. Breath is trainable. The nervous system responds. Early identification and breath education is prevention.

The Numbers

What the Data Tells Us

50%
of children shift to mouth breathing by age 5 — affecting sleep, focus and emotional regulation
21/21
parents of children with ADHD in our programme — every single child mouth breathes or snores
0
breath assessments conducted as part of Australia’s ADHD diagnostic pathway

Early prevention is suicide prevention.

The evidence is clear. The gap is real. And The Big AL Foundation exists to close it — one breath at a time.

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