Benefits of Yoga for Children in Occupational Therapy

Last year at this time, my husband, then 2-year old and I visited Copenhagen, Denmark for 9-days. Not a holiday. I attended Sonia Sumar’s course, Yoga for the Special Child. It was my first course after becoming a mum and first time away from my son for the entire day. He had fun with his dad, and I had fun doing yoga, meditation (well, trying) and relaxation everyday. It felt like a retreat. 🙂

Sonia Sumar is an amazing teacher with lots of personal wisdom to share. I have never taken a course that wasn’t offered by an Occupational, Physical or Speech Therapist. I had no idea I was going to learn about chanting, meditation, and lots of life lessons from Sonia versus just yoga (body) exercises. It has been as good for me as it has for my son and kids I work with.

A year later, I regularly do my own yoga routine learned in the course and have felt stronger, healthier and more energetic overall. The kids and my 3-year old love it too.

There are so many benefits to yoga but some of them are:

-calming and grounding

-chanting helps with calming, joint attention and engagement, auditory processing

-breathing alongside movements encourages children to breathe while moving (many children who are weak tend to hold their breath while doing motor tasks as they are using their diaphragm, a breathing muscle, to hold their body versus to breathe)

– builds an emotional connection between yogi and student

-yoga poses build core strength, body and spatial awareness, balance and motor planning skills

-yoga flow – a sequence of yoga poses that connect from one to another – build rhythm and timing, fluidity of movements and sequencing skills

-incorporates of breath and movement of eyes whilst doing the yoga poses

-kids learn how to calm and find a ‘quiet space’

-deep relaxation – it’s amazing how many of us can’t still our bodies or minds to relax. I’m still working on this myself and it’s a tough one.

For more information, check out:

Yoga for the special child

For those who are in or near London, check out the work of MahaDevi Yoga Centre

You can also learn more from the Yoga for the Special Child Book

Om Shanti Shanti. (Peace peace peace)