Guest post by Kami Evans

When my daughter Hannah was diagnosed with hemiparesis, which is a mild case of cerebral palsy, I wondered: What can I do to help her? How active should she be? And how can I not be overprotective of Hannah, especially when she goes off to school?

The answer seemed to be involving my daughter in as many activities as I could. As a result, Hannah was signed up for swimming, gym and music classes all by her first birthday. My daughter also had eight hours of physical and occupational therapy each week.

The brain is so plastic. And how active I remained with Hannah’s treatment before she turned 24 months would impact how successful her recovery would be. I was on a mission.

Then I found yoga. When a class with a few participants got cancelled, I hired the instructor to lead the lessons out of my home. At 15 months, Hannah started to crawl by incorporating the rocking table and downward dog poses in her movements. At 20 months, Hannah progressed to trying poses such as mountain, squats and elevator. Every day Hannah would get the movements more and more.

I saw such a difference in my daughter’s development that we asked the instructor to come over three times per week. Meanwhile, Hannah continued to take her usual classes and have her weekly eight hours of therapy sessions. But the yoga instruction was unique in that it was playful and enjoyable for Hannah, prompting her to consider her time with the instructor as a playdate.

When the instructor chose to pursue other interests, it encouraged me to become certified. I first took a teacher training course at a Manhattan studio for children’s yoga, followed by training and certification working with children with special needs.

The best part of the training? Not only did I learn more about Hannah’s yoga practice and how it enabled her to become increasingly aware of her body and personal space, but I was able to share this with other families, as well. Inspired by this journey, I opened a yoga studio for children on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This led me to share the benefits of yoga for children in more than five locations throughout New York City.

Four Exercises to Develop Body & Mind

Cross the mid-line. Crossing the mid-line enhances brain development. An example of this is to sit with your child, having him or her rub one’s hands together. Once the child’s hands get warm, have the child cross hands and touch opposite shoulders. This allows the child to cross the mid-line and make new neurological pathways for further brain development. Motivate your child to do this over and over again in novel ways, such as by crossing over to touch one’s knees, toes and ears.

Use the eyes. As your child grows, he or she looks at things in new ways. Once the child begins to look at books and track words, the child’s depth perception develops. While this occurs, it is crucial for your child to build the muscles behind the eyes. One method of doing this is by moving a toy the child likes in different directions, asking the child to follow the toy with his or her eyes. Another method is snapping your fingers up and down and then right to left, while your child trails the movements. Either way, have your child watch the object move at least ten times in each direction. This helps build the little muscles supporting the child’s eyes and lessens the chances for glasses.

Do core poses. As all of a person’s limbs are extensions from the core of the body, it’s essential to develop the core. Building a strong core enables a child to balance oneself both physically and mentally. Poses that support the core are the dolphin pose and boat pose. Do these and other poses with your children, allowing you each to build your strength and bond.

Sing a song. While singing to a child can help the young yogini accomplish a difficult pose, it can be especially encouraging for children who are late talkers. If for any reason you find your child not communicating, find a book that you know the child enjoys and sing each word in the story. Take the time to sing the words one by one and change your tone, emphasizing that a new word is being sung. Soon your child will be doing poses in utter relaxation, not even realizing a stronger core will result and likely a better grasp of language.

Kami Evans, the founder and an instructor at Elahi Yoga, became a certified children’s yoga instructor through Karma Kids Yoga and a certified yoga instructor for kids with special needs through Every Kids Yoga, which are both located in Manhattan. Working with her daughter and seeing remarkable improvements through yoga exercise has inspired Evans to continue with the practice and help other children to gain self-confidence and have fun through yoga. Visit www.elahiyoga.com or call (800)584-7940 to learn more about Elahi Yoga. 

Star pose is a great pose to teach balance and coordinate movement with music. Star pose is ideal for pre-school and school aged children. Children with special needs also enjoy this pose. You can do this pose individually but in this video we’re doing it with a partner. Practicing this kids yoga pose with a partner provides an opportunity for success for individuals with developing balance skills to enjoy a sense of accomplishment. In addition it builds social skills and develops the coordination necessary to transfer weight from one side to the other, increasing strength and core stability. 

Star Pose

Hello, I’m Donna with Yogainmyschool.comand today I’m here with my niece, Nadia. Nadia and I are going to show you how to do star pose. So if you’ve ever wondering what you can do with pre-school children and yoga here is a great activity.

Let’s make a five pointed star with our bodies. First extend your legs nice and wide. Then reach your arms out. Now twinkle your fingers. Next twinkle your toes. And can you sing Twinkle Little Star with me?

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are,

Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky,

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.

That was perfect, thank you so much.

Stick Art is a creative meditation and mindfulness activity which develops focus and attention in kids. You can use Bendaroos (such as in the video example), toothpicks, straws or any other collection of sticks you can find.

One at a time, each player adds their stick to a central design which can be either abstract or specific (house, animal, etc). It takes concentration and cooperation to carefully place each stick into an ever evolving larger picture. This activity also develops the pincer grasp and fine motor control essential to learning how to write.

Meditation Activities for Kids: Stick Art

Stick Art is a fun art combined with meditation activity.

To do this activity you need a number of sticks. In this case we’re using multicoloured Bendaroos because they help us to make circles.

The idea here is that each person participating takes a turn to put down one stick. They do it silently, without verbal communication.

This activity helps to develop the pincer grasp which is a fundamental grasp needed for writing. So if you have a child who is struggling with their writing abilities, or has poor penmanship, this is a really great game to help them develop better writing skills.

And you can kind of discern what these ladies are working toward as they do their Stick Art. Sometimes its an abstract picture. In this case we have a gentleman with really funky hair.

So thank you ladies for showing us how to do Stick Art.

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Stuffed Animals Assist with Children’s Breathing Exercise

Ever wonder how to get your preschooler to slow down for five minutes and take a deep breath?

Swimming Stuffies shows you how using a stuffed animal as a prop can promote deep, calm, relaxed belly breathing. This technique uses a favourite stuffed animal, placed on the belly.

The goal is to have the child use their belly breathing to lift the stuffed animal on an inhale and lower it on an exhale. This action makes the stuffy appear to swim in the waves of the breath. This technique is extremely effective with pre-school and special needs children and is included in the book Once Upon a Pose.

Swimming Stuffies: Pranayama for Kids

This is Greer demonstrating swimming stuffies, a lovely tool for teaching children how to inhale and exhale with belly breathing.

So she is laying in corpse pose and we’ve placed a stuffed cow on her tummy. As she takes a deep inhale the cow will rise. As she exhales the down descends. She slows her breath and allows the cow to ride the waves, to swim in the ocean of breath. Its very calming and relaxing, and a wonderful tool to use to teach children how to belly breathe.

Enjoy swimming stuffies with your kids today. Namaste.

Be sure to check out the other great kids yoga videos on YogaInMySchoolTVon YouTube and let me know what you think.

Children with asthma have unique physical challenges. More and more children are being diagnosed with this respiratory complaint with a 160% increase of asthma cases since 1980. In fact almost 7 million children in the US have asthma . This Blog Talk Radio episode will focus on three types of yoga poses and three breathing exercises which help alleviate symptoms of asthma in children. Please always continue to take perscribed medication and use these exercises in addition to your Doctor’s recommendations.

Original Air Date: 12/15/2009 3:00 PM

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Puppets work especially well in yoga class. Even the shyest child will engage with a puppet and they are a valuable way to introduce topic work or to vocalise feelings. Puppets are great for asking questions, for injecting humour, and for providing a ’safe’ place to interact. They are also wonderful at bringing stories to life and can be found in all shapes, sizes, and themes. It is best to choose puppets with a welcoming face, who can become a confidant, amabassador or friend. The key to being a good puppeteer is to make the audience believe the puppet is alive by looking at the puppet when talking to it, using gentle movements, and having the puppet display emotions.

• happy: mouth open while rocking side to side
• sad: head faces down/hands wipe tears
• shy: look up slowly , then away slowly, repeatedly
• worried: glance quickly back and forth
• angry: head tilts to one side away from puppeteer  
• tired: make the puppet yawn or move slowly

Aruna Kathy Humphries, of Young Yoga Masters, has these suggestions on using a puppet in kids yoga class from her experiences with Mr. Moo Moo.

Mr. Moo Moo: In case you haven’t guessed Mr. Moo Moo is a cow. But he is a very special cow because he loves yoga. He’s a black and white puppet that I’ve had for about 10 years.

 When I introduce him he hides his face in my neck (he’s shy). He often whispers things in my ear and then I’ll ask the kids, “He wants to know if you are kind?” “He’s wondering if anyone will grab him, he doesn’t like that.” If people are sitting quietly he will come over and whisper in their ear. If they are doing a yoga pose he may sit on them, under them, or go through them. He likes to wake kids up from their relaxation too.

If they are not quiet or doing the pose he doesn’t come. Great incentive to get kids (even 11 year olds) to pay attention and do what we’re doing.

Aruna Kathy Humphries is a certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor whose teachings and life has been influenced by Tulshi Sen. She can be found on her website Young Yoga Masters.

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