Category Archives: Gross Motor Skills

Yoga For Children With Additional Needs

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We are often asked about the benefits that yoga can bring to children with additional needs, so we asked one of our Area Managers, Denyse Whillier, to tell us more. Denyse is running monthly Sunday morning YogaBugs classes for children with additional needs in North East London. (The clip above from Fox News shows the benefits of yoga for children with autism).

“I started to offer these classes following requests from the parents of a local disability forum, the majority of who have children on the autistic spectrum. There’s a shortage of suitable activities for children with additional needs in my area, and little for parents to do with their child. I wasn’t sure how our YogaBugs story-style adventures would work so I piloted a couple of classes over the Easter holidays to find out. If you watched Louis Theroux recent programme ‘Extreme Love’ for the BBC, you’ll have gained an insight into the rewards, stresses and challenges this condition brings.

Story selection was important. Because the classes attracted children of different ages, I chose stories that had broad appeal. We started with ‘Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone.’ For our second adventure, we took a trip around London and the kids chipped in during the class to tell us what sights they’d seen themselves and the best way of getting to each. Teacher, Sarah, was reminded that Charing Cross tube station is not on the Piccadilly line!

For some of the children, simply staying in the room with us and experiencing the class was an achievement. Others were delighted to show us postures they’d learnt beforehand at home. A number of children needed help to balance in Tree pose but gave it a go nevertheless. With consistent encouragement from parents and carers, by the end of the class all of the children were able to lie down in Savasana and enjoy a few minutes of relaxation.”

So here are some reasons why yoga is particularly beneficial for children with special needs:

Relaxation: Yoga soothes the sensory system, and the relaxation response (parasympathetic system) is engaged through forward bending. Encouraging deep, even breathing leads to greater relaxation.

Body/ spatial awareness: Better body awareness is one of the greatest benefits of the yoga practice. Standing and balancing poses help develop stability, strength, and coordination. Poses such as tree, eagle, and dancer provide joint compression. Moving from backbends to forward bends to twists gives the vestibular system (which controls balance) rich input, which helps a child feel calm and grounded.

Self-awareness: All yoga practices are aimed at developing better awareness – of the body, the mind and the breath. Yoga also inherently helps develop a greater sense of self, a feeling of more ease in the world, and a sense that “everything is okay just as it is.”

For further information, see:

“Sensory Integration and How Yoga Helps” from Yoga Chicago’s March/April 2010 magazine by Mira Binzen, E-RYT, RCYT, http://www.yogachicago.com/mar10/mira.shtml

“Yoga and Autism: A rewarding (and challenging) assignment” by Hannah Gould, Published in Yoga Therapy Today December 2010, http://www.nesca-newton.com/Yoga_and_Autism_Hannah_Gould.pdf

“Yoga for Children on the Autism Spectrum” by Jennie Ehleringer, Published in the 2010 edition of International Journal of Yoga Therapy, http://www.yogaforallpdx.com/uploads/IJYT-2010__Ehleringer-Final_.pdf

The Value Of Play

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On 28 September, we wrote about a feature in The Telegraph in which a powerful lobby of more than 200 experts warning that half of all children are not ready for school at the age of five because of their sedentary lifestyles. At YogaBugs Mission Control, we’re great fans of play; and the more creative and imaginative the better!

Play is fundamental to children’s learning and development. It’s how children learn about themselves and the world around them. Children play spontaneously as it’s a natural instinct to explore the world around them.  As they develop new skills, children learn how to overcome obstacles and solve problems. Play teaches children how to get along with others and develops social skills.

It’s important that children try out a broad range of play activities, and don’t just focus on the same one, day after day. To understand the different types of possibilities, it’s helpful to think of play in terms of five categories – explorative, imaginative, creative, physical and thinking.

Explorative – children are by nature little scientists and have endless questions. What happens if I mix these colours together? How do these blocks fit together?

Imaginative – pretending to be a doctor or a fireman, role playing and dressing up

Creative – making something out of nothing

Physical – developing co-ordination, balancing, running, catching, skipping, hop scotch

Thinking – solving puzzles and problems, making up rhymes and songs, word games

Each of the five different play categories stimulates the brain and body in different ways. By ensuring that your child’s play covers a broad range of activities, you’ll greatly aid their overall development and build confidence. What’s so great about play is that it can be done anywhere, does not have to cost anything and most importantly is fun!

Yoga and the Development of Gross Motor Skills In Pre-School Children

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Yoga for children is very different to adult yoga as it has to be a lot more high-energy to keep them interested. That’s why our YogaBugs classes involve stories, group work, songs and games whilst simultaneously learning yoga poses, breathing and relaxation techniques.

The main aims for pre-school children are to develop motor skills and confidence. In this blog post, we’re going to focus on how yoga helps children to develop gross motor skills. Motor skills have two separate parts: gross and fine. Fine motor skills include matching shapes and colours, zipping, cutting straight lines and dressing or bathing. Gross motor skills include walking, lifting, throwing, kicking, sitting upright, jumping and reaching. Gross motor skills are important for major body functions, while fine motor skills take time to develop and won’t occur overnight. Children improve motor skills by practicing over and over.

You can encourage your child to develop their gross motor skills by allowing him/ her to ride bikes, kick and throw large balls and to gallop like a horse. Each child grows and develops at different rates so it’s important to be patient with him/ her, praising accomplishments and efforts. Improve gross motor skills with exercises by playing ‘Simon Says.’ Imitation activities such as creeping like a snake, waddling like a duck and hopping like a rabbit are effective for exercising the gross motor skills.

A great yoga posture to practice with your child is tree pose. This helps to develop balance and flexibility as you have to make small adjustments in order to stay upright. Simply start by standing upright and shift your weight into one foot. Lift the other foot and hold it against your ankle (with your knee pointing out to the side). First bring your hands together at your heart. When you’re feeling steady, lift your arms steadily up to the sky to form branches. Once you’ve got your balance, try closing your eyes and see how long you can stay balanced for. Repeat on the second side.