Quest for Excellence – Seeking Answers from YOU
Quest for Excellence is a new installment on Young Yoga Masters. My teacher, Tulshi Sen, encourages students to ask questions when they have them because every question is a quest, and every quest has a question. When we question, we become seekers.
Now you can help others on a quest by sharing your knowledge and experience. Here’s the first question:
Archer Pose: Sets the Mark for Excellence
Dear Aruna,
I have been approached by a mom of 4 children to practice yoga with her 11 year old daughter (ADHD) and her 9 year old son(Cerebral Palsy).I would just like some input on class curriculum for their specific needs.
Thank you in advance for anticipated response,
Namaste
Gisele – CCYT
www.foundationyogaforkids.com
Thanks Gisele for the question. I don’t have any experience teaching kids’ with Cerebral Palsy. But I do know there are many great teachers reading who may have this experience or have worked with kids with ADHD. Now this is the part where you the reader step up to help in our Quest? Leave a comment below and tell us:
- any experiences you’ve had working with kids with ADHD or Cerebral Palsy,
- yoga poses you recommend for a class like this,
- stories/songs/meditations for this class,
- helpful resources about kids with ADHD, Cerebral Palsy and yoga
- words of encouragement, other suggestions or comments
Today’s blog post is a Quest for Excellence. Won’t you help us as we seek to become a community of powerful teachers! Help in the Quest for Excellence by leaving a comment today.
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Your post very informative and it offers lots of information about cerebral palsy. Lots of new treatments and exercises are being innovated for the children suffering from CP. Yoga is one of them and it is playing great role in preventing the people from many diseases. So opting for this method is good idea. To get more information about cerebral palsy treatments, can visit site.
Cerebral Palsy is often used to describe brain damage caused during labor and delivery. It is widely accepted that a significant percentage of these cases are the result the interruption of proper oxygenation of the baby prior to birth.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions and links! This is great advice for CP.
I’ve found that yoga for kids with ADHD is similar to other classes but the times for each pose will probably start off shorter. Having about 15 – 20 poses for a 60 minute class lesson plan will help you in case you go through them quickly.
For an 11 year old and a 9 year old, they are getting older and may be less interested in juvenile activities like playing animals. You could try letting them give input into the class, giving a pose and asking them to make up a story to go with it. Generally, with older kids, they like to show you what they know. You spend more time describing the benefits of the pose, mental and physical with older kids. Stressing which poses build your mental muscles of concentration as well as your physical muscles!
Get to know each other by doing a song with movements to it as a meditation. It’s a good way to break the ice. Two songs we use to make up hand and arm movements (while sitting in easy pose) to the lyrics are:
– Colors by Kira Wiley
– I am Light of my Soul by Snatam Kaur
All the best with your class Gisele. I’d love to hear how it goes.
I wrote an article about yoga for kids and teens with cerebral palsy. Here is the link http://yogainmyschool.com/2009/10/16/yoga-for-children-and-teens-with-cerebral-palsy/
You’ll be interested to know that yoga is extremely beneficial in riducing the rigidity typical of cerebral palsy. It helps realign the spine, increase flexibility and augment range of motion.
Be sure to read the entire article and look for the video link to a NCPAD article which has numerous videos of specific yoga exercises for those with cerebral palsy.
I can also recommend Sonia Sumar. I attended her Yoga for the Special Child course in Melbourne, Australia earlier this year. She is a fantastic yoga teacher who specialises in working with children with special needs. Her website address is http://www.specialyoga.com/.
hey, I am libi a yoga teacher for kids from Israel. I was recommend abut the book “Yoga for the Special Child” by
Sonia Sumar