Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Yoga for kids with ADHD


For many weeks I have been teaching a wonderful little girl yoga. She is very excited to roll out her mat and tell me all the new events in her life. We would do various pranayama techniques like feather breathing, and balloon breathing. She loved doing Sun Salutations, Warriors, Yoga Adventures and Yoga Obstacle courses. At first her grandma, who would watch on the side was surprised that she was able to focus during our classes. I thought it was normal since most kids like yoga.

Soon I came to find out that she has ADHD. Slowly, I started to notice her attention fleeting. She quickly wanted to just spend our sessions blowing balloons, or doing nothing related to asana or meditation. I became concerned and was unsure what to do. Every suggestion was rejected. I felt I needed to somehow engage her in yoga so she would get the full benefits of the class.
So one day I gave her a Mandala to color and meditate. She colored a little bit and was quickly bored. So I asked her to turn the page over. I explained that the blank page is her place to draw all the Yoga poses she remembers. She amazed me!!! I called out poses and she drew the asanas with such detail. I had no idea she remembered so many yoga poses, since we spent many classes without asana work. She told me I could keep it, but I showed it to Grandma and saw how proud she was. Grandma took the picture home to show everyone and share her amazement with this brilliant little girls ability to recall and draw all the yoga poses.

1 comment:

  1. Yoga is very good for health. Sometimes children don't find it interesting. So for them one can teach yoga with some interesting animal poses like owl pose, bird pose, butterfly pose, cricket pose etc. By such poses, they will learn yoga and also they will find it different and interesting. To get more knowledge on yoga poses for children, refer Yoga positions

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