Yoga Therapy
- Yoga develops motor skills. Kids with autism frequently experience delayed motor development, which can be improved as yoga tones muscles, enhances balance and stability, and develops body awareness and coordination. As motor skills develop, children have a greater sense of their physical self in space and in relation to others and can improve their gait and stability.
- Yoga improves confidence and social skills. Poor coordination often yields low self-esteem as kids may be singled out or teased for not moving or behaving like other children, or not excelling in sports and outdoor activities. By learning self-control and self-calming techniques through yoga, they are likely to grow confidence in interacting with other children and refine their social skills.
- Yoga provides sensory integration. Children with autism often suffer from a highly sensitive nervous system and are easily overstimulated by bright lights, new textures, loud noises, strong tastes, and smells. Yoga’s natural setting of dim lights, soft music, smooth mats, and “inside” voices creates a comforting environment largely protected from unknown or aggressive stimuli in which calming down becomes enjoyable.
- Yoga provides coping techniques to both kids and parents.Whether teaching the child breathing techniques for self-calming, talking the class through a guided visualization the child can use when getting anxious or sharing flashcards of the day’s poses with parents to use at home, yoga provides an awesome toolbox to parents and siblings
- Yoga facilitates self-awareness. Yoga is particularly instrumental in helping kids with autism learn self-regulation. By becoming aware of their bodies and aware of their breathing, yoga provides them with the ability to cope when they start to feel anxious or upset. Often, classes incorporate other experiences known to benefit a child on the autism spectrum, such as massage, music, dance, rhymes, and stories.
- Yoga engages the emotional brain. We all know that yoga is far from purely physical, and this combination of movement, music, breath work and storytelling activates the brain’s emotional region. This encourages children to develop awareness of their emotions and those of others, as well as keeps their attention in the class. Music is another powerful tool that the yoga instructor can share with parents to use at home to recreate the environment of a yoga class.
