BY SARAH ROTH
A yoga instructor based in New York City has developed a school of inclusive yoga to provide group instruction in yoga and mindfulness for kids with a range of developmental abilities.
Inhale, arms overhead. Exhale, forward fold. For many years, yoga has allowed practitioners around the world to improve breathing control, decrease physical tension, and discover the boundaries of the body. The practice of yoga can foster a sense of physical, emotional and cognitive balance by inspiring stillness and movement when each is most needed. Craig Hanauer, a yoga instructor based in New York City, has developed a school of inclusive yoga, “Every Kid’s Yoga,” to provide group instruction in yoga and mindfulness for kids with a range of developmental abilities.
In the program, Craig draws from his studies as a creative arts therapist, from his training at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and from his work at the Parkside School in Manhattan, where he taught yoga to kids with special needs for 13 years. At the Parkside School, all teachers incorporate breathing and movement instruction into their classroom activities. An integrated yoga practice complements the school’s language therapy and counseling programs.
In 2004, when Craig joined the staff of the Parkside School, he found that the community of instructors teaching yoga to kids with special needs was largely uncoordinated. He encountered one teacher-training program on the subject, but it emphasized individual instruction. Already certified as an arts therapist, he sought an
understanding of how to teach kids in a group setting. Craig decided to take matters into his own hands. He established “Every Kid’s Yoga: Teaching Yoga to Kids with Special Needs,” a program based at the Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, MA.
“My vision,” Craig says, “was to gather people together who had similar ideas, who wanted to do similar work.”
Since 2004, Craig has connected yoga practitioners and yoga instructors interested in creating inclusive spaces for young yogis. The program has continued to grow. Classes, demonstrations, and workshops can be found in studios and at conferences around the country. One morning in April, Craig and I sat down to discuss Every Kid’s Yoga. Craig shared thoughts on the key components of a good inclusive group yoga practice, ideas about inclusivity, and advice for parents getting their kids or themselves ready for class.
• • • • • • THE ARC OF THE CLASS • • • • • •
For most of childhood, our attention spans are short, quick, and drawn outward. When we’re receiving specific forms of therapy or medication, our energy levels can be variable, and our biorhythms, too. So the structure of an Every Kid’s Yoga class is more dynamic than the structure of most adult yoga classes. At the beginning of each class, Craig arranges color-changing tea lights around the room. As kids settle onto their mats, he asks them to announce each color in their heads, observing quietly: Green! Blue! Yellow!
“They become mesmerized with this candle,” Craig says. “It’s an incentive for them to be still and follow directions, and it keeps them focused.”
As the class proceeds, Craig encourages kids to tune into their senses. He uses guided visualizations, movement instructions, and external cues. Kids are prompted to check in with their bodies and themselves: What am I seeing? How am I feeling? What am I smelling? What am I tasting?
The goal of an Every Kid’s Yoga class is for each kid to listen to her body, to the way it interacts with her environment. In this way, the class discourages the topdown inhibition typical of highly structured schools and disciplinary institutions – if you sit still, you’ll be rewarded – and favors the development of bottom-up inhibition – if you receive what you need, you’ll develop an internalized sense of organization.
Every Kid’s Yoga grounds each kid in the space of her mat. Throughout the class, kids’ energy levels are brought up and then down, up and then down, ultimately landing in a place of authentic calm. And, Craig explains, while kids are moving through individual yoga postures, there’s a driving rhythm to the class.
“For kids who are highly impulsive,” Craig says, “this is very helpful.”
The interplay of movement and stillness—up and down, up and down—can help kids to feel engaged when otherwise they might lose interest. “The Goldfish Song” by the Laurie Berkner Band is a good example of this dynamic, says Craig. He often plays the song in class.
“There’s this goldfish who takes a shower,” Craig says. “Brushes its teeth, rides a bicycle. The song is engaging, humorous, and fun. But between each segment of the song, there’s this part where the goldfish takes a nap.” There’s a pause.
…wait a minute, we’re fish! we don’t take showers.
…wait a minute, we’re fish! we don’t ride bicycles.
…wait a minute, we’re fish! we don’t brush our teeth.
“And then another fun, dynamic part happens.”
The class stands, stretches into tall mountain, and sits in staff pose. The class stands, stretches wide into goddess, and sits in butterfly. The naps, the quiet moments, the savasanas, are few and far between. “Every so often,” Craig says, “there are these delicious, miraculous moments where we pause with our cheeks resting on our hands, our hands are pillows, and there is stillness and silence.”
At the end of class, Craig often instructs kids to play “the bell game.” He gives explicit meditative instructions: sit up tall, and breathe in and out through your nose and mouth. He walks around, looking for those who are doing a great job. He rings a small bell by the ears of kids following instructions.
“They’re listening to explicit meditation directions,” Craig says, “and having a brief experience of turning attention inward.”
• • • • • • ENGAGING EVERYONE • • • • • •
“Children, and all of us,” Craig says, “are along a spectrum.” The key to inclusive yoga is figuring out how to include everybody physically, meanwhile keeping all kids interested and engaged.
At a demonstration class in San Diego, Craig taught two six-yearold girls with Down’s syndrome, a typically developing four-yearold girl, and a typically developing nine year-old boy. He was faced with the challenge of engaging the younger kids and not alienating the older kid. Craig played a Beach Boys album throughout the class to connect with each of the kids and give the class a collective driving rhythm.
“Music is so effective for engaging everybody,” Craig says. “Especially those with speech and language challenges.” If a song has a theme to it—the butterfly song, the fish song, the snake song—the song can be familiar, developmentally appropriate, and fun.
Understanding the appropriate instruction for a kid means understanding the broader factors that influence mood and behavior.
“Intuitively, I would want to calm down a kid who is hyperactive,” Craig says. “But hyperactive behavior is sometimes an attempt to self-regulate, or the side effect of a stimulant.” Sometimes kids who are hyperactive respond best to an energizing hara breath, and not a relaxing sun breath.
• • • • • • WORDS FOR PARENTS • • • • • •
“Sometimes, parents determine that a kid is dis-regulated,” Craig says. “And they say: This kid needs yoga.” Yoga can be wonderful for many children. Yoga is a seed to plant in childhood. But yoga shouldn’t be treated as a panacea or intervention.
Craig has several tips for parents interested in bringing their kid or themselves to yoga class.
• Reflect on if you think yoga is the right fit for your child. Martial arts—karate, tai-kwon do—could be a better fit.
• Schedule yoga class only if there is time for yoga class. For adults, a yoga practice at the end of the day can be a good way to unwind. But kids need time to just be, and to rest. Yoga can be a struggle if kids are exhausted. Sometimes giving a child an opening in their schedule can be more useful than even the most relaxing practice.
• Prepare for yoga class by eating well, eating a balanced diet, and eating regularly.
Above all, breathe, move, and cultivate sensory awareness with an intention that can be brought into the studio space, brought into the classroom, and brought into everyday life to empower you and your kid.•
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sarah Roth is Program Coordinator for Genes in Life. She is interested in the relationship between storytelling and health support systems. She received her MFA from the University of Notre Dame, her BA from Washington University in St. Louis, and her 230-hour Yoga Teacher Training from the Asheville Yoga Center. Sarah can be found @selizabethroth
BREATHE IN THE AIR : RELAXING AND ENERGIZING
SUN BREATH
From Mountain pose, relax your belly. Then take five to ten complete breaths, using your full lung capacity. Try to let each inhale and each exhale last around six counts. Inhale, and slowly raise your arms out to the sides and up overhead, bringing your palms together. Then exhale and slowly draw your palms down the midline of your body until your thumbs rest at the center of your chest.
Integrate your movement and breath so that one full inhalation brings your arms way up and one complete exhalation takes your arms all the way down. With each breath, focus on filling and emptying your lungs completely.
Repeat this for several minutes. Then relax your body, soften your breath, and place one hand on your belly and the other hand on your chest. Feel for your heartbeat and connect with the warmth of your own internal flame.
“Sun breath,”
Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health
HARA BREATH
Inhale through your nose, drawing in abundant energy, healing, and relaxation. Reach both arms overhead. Exhale through your mouth, bend your elbows, and pull your fists down alongside the ribs, emphatically saying,
“Ha!”
Repeat 10 to 15 times.
Pause, breathe naturally, and relax. Take a moment to observe and soak in the energy flowing throughout your entire being.
“Hara breath,”
Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health
EVERY KID’S YOGA
www.everykidsyoga.com
Every Kid’s Yoga is a unique and successful program for children with special needs that integrates yoga, creative arts, and play. Craig Hanauer developed Every Kid’s Yoga at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health to provide yoga classes for every kid, and Yoga Teacher Training modules for instructors.
BE MINDFUL : RESOURCES FOR INTERESTED PARENTS, TEACHERS, YOGIS & YOGINIS BUDDING YOGIS TEACHER TRAINING @ CIRCLE YOGA
http://circleyoga.com/budding-yogis/teacher-training
The 20-hour Budding Yogis Certification is based on a philosophy of teaching yoga and mindfulness to kids in a way that stretches their imaginations, offers them non-competitive opportunities to play, and teaches them how to relax. Budding Yogis special emphasizes mindfulness and the ways in which it can be incorporated into children’s yoga and their everyday lives.
NATIONAL KIDS YOGA CONFERENCE
http://conference.yokid.org
The National Kids Yoga Conference gathers leaders in the worlds of yoga, mindfulness, and meditation. This year’s conference will be held on September 30th to October 2nd at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Craig Hanauer will be conducting a workshop entitled, “If They’re Singing, They’re Breathing: Music, Yoga and the Brain.”
CHILDREN’S yOGA TEACHER TRAINING COLLABORATIVE
http://childrensyogattc.com/childrens-yoga-teacher-collaborative
The Children’s Yoga Teacher Training Collaborative (CYTTC) is a Yoga Alliance approved, 95-hour Children’s Yoga Teacher Training School. The CYTTC allows trainees to choose from a variety of 95-hour tracks, consisting of the most outstanding children’s yoga teacher trainings in the world.
