Yoga For Children With Additional Needs
Yoga provides holistic health through physical exercise, breathing, and relaxation to practitioners of any age. For children with additional needs, yoga is considered therapeutic and is taught in a special way to enhance their physical, emotional, and physiological well-being. A routine of practicing yoga brings great benefits to children with various needs such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, and ADD/ADHD.
Physical Benefits
Yoga poses help children with physical, sensory integration, and body awareness. Practicing yoga builds greater strength, flexibility, and coordination in the limbs and body. Incorporating forward bends, backward bends, lateral bends, and twists ensures the body moves in every direction, working the bones, muscles, cartilage, and nerves. This is especially beneficial for children with low or weak muscle tone.
Yoga poses also involve various sensory experiences, such as stretching, balancing, and grounding, which give the muscles and tendons a relaxing stretch, releasing overall stress and tightness throughout the muscle structure and around the joints.
Breathwork and Emotional Well-being
Breathwork improves the respiratory system, strengthens internal organs, and enhances overall health and development. Through breathwork, children can develop greater self-awareness of their bodies and emotions. They learn to recognize signs of stress or discomfort and utilize breathing techniques to self-regulate and manage these feelings effectively.
Yoga neutralizes and calms the sympathetic nervous system, bringing inner peace. For children, this means better sleep, improved concentration, and a more relaxed demeanour.
Additional Therapeutic Techniques
Massage and working with the feet can be included in yoga sessions to relieve pain, improve circulation, and support emotional well-being. Massaging the feet stimulates blood flow, which can enhance circulation throughout the body and improve the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles and organs.
Massage therapy creates a safe and nurturing environment in which children with special needs can relax. It can alleviate physical discomfort or pain due to muscle tightness or joint stiffness by reducing muscle tension and promoting relaxation.
Class Options
Regular yoga practice helps children to relax and focus, enabling the introduction of deep relaxation techniques. This enhances the benefits of calmness, awareness, and concentration. The emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being of the child is given as much importance as the physical, making yoga a unique and life-affirming practice for children with special needs.
Group Yoga Breaks During School Hours
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Duration: 30 minutes
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Timing: Morning sessions to help children start the day with a calm and centered mind
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Class Size: Groups of 3-4 children
One-on-One Yoga Sessions
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Duration: Flexible timing based on children's availability