Teaching Pranayama to Children (August 2005)

ORIGINAL QUESTION:

From Gyandev @ AYSutra Home

Do you have experience with do’s and don’ts in teaching pranayama to children? What has worked well, and what hasn’t? Any other advice? (The particular question that was asked was with respect to ages 11-14 or so, but whatever you have to offer concerning any children’s ages would be appreciated.)

ANSWERS:

From Susan Brochin

Of course, I definitely teach pranayama to children. I teach double breath with arms, and call it the "sniff sniff ha ha" breath (from Savitri- who called it that once). We do several rounds of it. Also I teach Alternate nostril breath, both to my whole class to calm them down and the yoga club of course. In addition, we do the even count breath. It is on the yoga video that the whole sixth grade (age 12) sees. We talk about expanding the chest, softening the belly etc.

Ted (our poster child) talks about the breath in the first article how it impacted him a lot and assisted him in scuba diving.

Please give them my e-mail. I would be happy to assist.

Blessings,
Susan

From Nitai Deranja (Ananda Village High School)

Pranayamas are a real help for teens. They’re tangible things to do, which is important, since the teens can easily get their minds around the practice. I’ve mainly used simple ones, such as alternate nostril breathing and measured breathing. I wouldn’t do breath of fire, but the basics work wonderfully well.

From Susan Hayes

I have taught pranayama to children as part of my kids' yoga classes. My "best" technique is teaching them "mala breathing" (and calling it that, instead of meditation or pranayama or anything else that will FREAK their parents out!).

I buy a bunch of cheap malas (from Mary Weber, or from a bead shop) and give each child a mala bracelet. Then, I teach them to inhale and exhale while touching one bead at a time, holding it between the thumb and third (middle) finger of the right hand. Then, after a complete in and out breath, I tell them to release that bead and move on to the next bead. When they reach the "guru" or "mehru" bead, they've completed one round. They turn around and go back the way they came. (George Feurstein's techniques from an article in Yoga Int'l a few years ago.)

Then, when it's time at the end of each class for calming them down, I tell them: Today, we'll try 2 rounds of mala breathing. (Or 3, or 1 – depending on their energy). They love it. It works!

From Jackie Doumanian

Dear Gyandev,

I haven't personally taught pranayama to children that age but I've taught a class for teachers that focuses on taking yoga techniques into the classroom. The breaths they have reported using the most with their classes (ages range from kindergarten to high school) is diaphragmatic breath and double breath. The double breath is often done without the arm movements but by tensing the whole body on inhale and relaxing the body on exhale. From the teachers' reports, both of these techniques have been easy to teach; the students enjoy them and actually ask for them. A few teachers routinely used breath techniques at the start of day or before tests. The breath techniques were the diaphragmatic and double breathing. Those were the only breaths the teachers seemed to be comfortable using with their students. Although, the teachers themselves really loved alternate nostril breathing and from their reflection papers found that breath to be very useful in their busy lives.

Blessings,
Jackie

From Lisa Mallery

I had the kindergarteners (4-5 year olds). During "mat time" they would lie down and close their eyes and we practiced diaphragmatic breathing (placing one hand on their tummy and one on their heart). During "circle time" after chanting and praying they would keep their eyes closed and "listen." When they opened their eyes they would share what they "heard." For older children, definitely ask the other teachers at LWS in Palo Alto. Gary McSweeney and Helen Purcell and Dharmaraj all worked with the 11 - 14 age group.

In joy,
Lisa Mallery

From Stuart Moody

This is a great question. Anything that accentuates the breath, esp. with sound, runs the risk of eliciting giggles, exaggeration, even mockery among some children. This may be due to some anxiety about one's self in the world. I have learned to start slowly, with simple and incidental exercises, when teaching children and teens.

In classes that are specifically "yoga for teens," usually through a studio or recreation center, these simple breathing practices have been immediately accepted by the students: The Full Yogic Breath (esp. lying down), the Full Yogic Breath Flow (inhaling and reaching up, exhaling and bending forward, inhaling again up, and exhaling hands to sides). Even with the latter it helps not to breathe too noisily in the attempt to model ujjayi pranayama (or simply to demonstrate when to breath in and out), as many yoga teachers do with adult students. Among children, the double breath elicits a few giggles at first, yet most children, even younger than teens, seem gradually to appreciate its power.

In the elementary school, where I have taught the most children, I will include Double Breath in my one-time classes; there appears to be a certain "special guest" effect, whereby children may take more risks. I also teach:

• Butterfly Wings: A variant of FYBF, really the first phase of Surya Namaskar -- inhale hands up from the heart, exhale them back to heart (we call this the Sun Greeting)
• Belly Breathing: standing or lying -- really part one of Dirgha Swasam
• Ocean Breathing (ujjayi pranayama): with a group that I have been seeing for a while
• Flickering Candle: holding a real (or imaginary) candle in front of you, inhale through nostrils, exhale slowly through pursed lips, just enough to make the candle flicker (in a small group we pass the candle around the circle, with one or two breaths for each person; this has been one of the most popular exercises among my 4th-6th grade students)

Alternate nostril breathing can be taught at some point. I usually wait until I sense that the children are ready for something that looks out of the ordinary.

These exercises, we know, can help children greatly. One child came up to me in dance class complaining of difficulty breathing. I walked her to the office to get her inhaler, but asked her to stop for a moment on the way. We did the Sun Greeting a few times and a few other breathings. When we got to the office, the secretary put her ear to the student's chest, listened to her breathe, and said, "You don't need your inhaler now."

From Toby Moorhouse (Ananda Village)

I do some breath work with kids at Ananda School, and one real important thing to remember is that their natural breath rate is much faster than that of adults. That's one reason why CPR is different for children (say, below adolescence). They simply cannot draw out a breath the way that adults can. Smaller lungs, for one thing.

One thing that I do is have them put their hands on their hearts and coordinate their breathing with their heartbeats: inhale for three heartbeats, exhale for three heartbeats. Or I have them move their hands from their laps to their third eye along with their inhalation, so it reaches the destination point at the same time as they finish their inhalation. (Similar with exhalation.) This helps because kids tend to take a deep inhalation as one big gulp of breath rather than something more drawn out, as one should do with pranayama.

Sometimes, since I'm never quite sure of just how long their breaths can be, I snap my fingers or count aloud and have them breathe in rhythm to that; I watch, and from that I know how long their breaths can realistically be.

Other things I do are for concentration: I'll have them close their eyes, I'll ring a little chime and ask them to listen for that sound, and keep listening even after the sound is gone, and try to imagine the sound at that point, because they have to learn how to pay attention to something that's subtle. Or I'll do visualization things that have to do with concentration: I'll light a candle, have them look, then close their eyes and try to see the candle in their mind's eye. When they lose the image, they can look again.

Anyway, that's a sampler of some of the possibilities.

From Kari Burgos

I have been teaching a "Yoga for Skaters" program of off ice training for young figure skaters.  I have taught them a few of the pranayama techniques, with pretty good results.  The age range for my group has been anywhere from 4yrs old up to 12 or 13.

I've taught these kids Ujjayi, Measured Breathing, Nadi Shodhanam and it's variations.  What I've found is they love learning something new, and tend to catch on pretty quick.  I have not gone into depth on the ida and pingala, or more of the deeper reasoning behind the techniques.  I tried that at first, but was met with blank stares of "huh"? or they would just find the closest bug to pay attention to....  What I've found that works best is to keep it light, give a basic reasoning, "heats you up, cools you down, calms or balances you" and that's about the extent.  Older children are certainly able to grasp more, but truly none of them are "on the spiritual path", and I find if you regurgitate endless amounts of info, they get bored and you lose them in a matter of seconds.  I keep it light, keep it moving, and pray that I can keep them "engaged" enough to make it through the class!  You find that with kids, you work in info on history, philosophy...

Just an FYI, I've had the most success with the game "name that asana".  We use the Ananda flash cards, and they do the pose, while trying to guess the name in English and Sanskrit.  Some of them are getting pretty good!  Keeps 'em moving and they tend not to get distracted.

From Beth Hamilton

Yes. I have taught breathing techniques to children of ages: 5-18.  The word: pranayama is not used, however.   We use the breath for stress reduction and anger management.  With the little kids they use gentle breath for a slow count of ten for anger/emotion control.  With the older kids, we use measured breath for stress reduction and emotional control issues.   Using the breath throughout the Energization Exercises (usually several of them) is effective for very active/ADHD older child/teenager  at times.  It depends upon the receptivity of the child and parent (when appropriate and included in session) to the idea of these exercises. I keep the large EE chart up in my office so that they can ask about what they are.   Caution:   little ones can hyperventilate pretty fast, so I encourage the slow complete breath. Hope this is somewhat helpful.

With Light,
Beth

From Heidi and Jim Noh-Kuhn, Sebastopol, CA, AYTT '97 and AYTT '02

We have one experience with teaching children in this regard: Super Conscious Living Exercises (followed by a few asana's) to a 4th grade class (ages about 9 or 10). We did not modify anything, and everything seemed to work well. We can't remember whether we included double breath in there or not. Our only advice would be to go ahead and do it, especially the full Energization Exercises.

Blessings and Peace,
Heidi and Jim

From Satyaki (Kraig) Brockschmidt, AYTT 2002

I did some of this in the Ananda Yoga Summer Camps in Seattle a couple of years ago. Breathing exercises seem to go over pretty well as they're easy to understand, interesting to do, and produce some real results. Another pranayam we played with once was maha mudra. I'd taken a group of them (8-12 year olds) into the community temple, which was somewhat chilly. When the kids complained of this I said, "Here, I'll show you something that will warm you up." So we did a few rounds of maha mudra (with regular breathing) and they were all sweating! But they enjoyed it and were able to follow the technique pretty easily.

From Dharmaraj Iyer

My experience is that kids often relate well to healing prayers, regardless of what they may or may not take from meditation. Often they relate to praying for somebody they care about, especially with younger ones. A lot of sincerity can come out there.

From Carrie Skelley

I have had such fun teaching basic breathing techniqes to youngsters (ages 9 to 14), both at the beginning of classes and at home, especially when our kids need help with relaxing.  Kids give me so much more time and attention than the adults in regular yoga classes.  They love it!  So free with experimenting and enthusiastic about the changes that they feel.

• I have kids lie on their back at the very beginning of a session so as to feel and see the effects of three part breathing.  They often giggle a lot and say that they and their friends look pregnant (even the guys, giggle, giggle).  They can really expand with the breath.
• We use fun names for different breathing techniques: balloon breath (3 part breath), bunny breath (breathing in and out through nose, mouth shut), snorting bull (double breath--careful on hot days--bloody noses),  candle breath (image of trick candle on birthday cake--use the diaphragm for strength--feel area with fingers), volcano breath (inhale with arms gathering up vocal "no, no, no" and exhale arms down with vocal "Yes!Yes!Yes! Great psychological cleaner.  No to negativity, yes to opportunities.  They shout out the specific examples.)
• After these warm-ups, they easily master measured breathing, nadi shodhanam (their  favorite), sitali and sitkari pranayama.
• Only some are able to do Ujjayi. We try to be conch shells and sound like the ocean.
• We have fun and laugh a lot!  They share with each other that they try some of these techniques when they are upset. before tests, during sleepless nights. . .

• Children taught me that "laughing is the best way to breath fully."  We have homework sometimes:  "Collect the best laugh that you can this week and bring it to class to share."  We share them in the middle of class before we take on harder poses.  Keeps us loose, happy and breathing fully.

Enjoy!
Carrie

From Gordana Sarson, Croatia, graduated 1995

Master has been sending  me to yoga classes with children only from age 4-9. So, my experiences are limited to that age. Here it is :

All these years I have been teaching them only 2 pranayamas:

Diaphragmatic Breathing

We all together lie on the floor (me, too) Put our own 3 different colored paper ships on our chest and stomach, and try to observe how the ships are floating , is the ocean calm or there is a storm. At the very beginning, they are always noisy, looking to each other and comparing the ships and the oceans. And I just leave them 1-2 minutes to perform that noise and disturbance. And then we all become calmer and calmer. And there is a period when they are absolutely silent, but only for about 2 minutes. After that we do the second pranayama:

Inhale - Hold the Breath - Exhale

We are still on the floor, and each of us has in hands our own painting of wall clock in front of our eyes. There is a small mouse on that painting ,too. While mouse goes up, our stomach is growing up, too. When mouse is on the top of the clock, mouse stays and observe what is the time  - so our stomach does not move during that time, then mouse goes down, not running, --but slowly, and our stomach is being smaller and smaller. We do it several times, each on our rhythm, and I do not know how long it is, when I recognize that they lost patience and start noisy, we stand up and start with practicing yoga postures.

Practical Hints for Practising

We start these breathing exercises right after sun salutation, when they lie on the flour to rest of 3 sun salutations. The sun salutations are after the Super consciousness Living Exercises with which we start our classes (and , of course, for that age I do not use the word superconscious. But say, let’s start with the postures of happy child, making my voice intonation similar like in the sound: I am positive, energetic, enthusiastic!

For this age I do not use the word breathing exercises , not pranayama, just say, “Let’s play with our paper ships,” or “Let’s go to the ocean,” or “Let’s see our mouse on the clock.”

Always I leave them the time to be noisy before they start to be calm -- it works better than to pressure them to be calm all the time.

The paper ship should be done by parents at home, each in a different color, 3 ships for each child, with name of child on it. That will remain in class so we avoid forgetting it at home for some class. Ask parents first if they do know how to make it, if they do not know, then I make it at home for them .

The wall clock paint should be done by children with help of parents if needed, on a bigger paper (our standard A-4 ) which is a firm one, either it will roll down when they put it in hand while lying on the flour.

And It is interesting that I never see boring face doing these exercises, although 2 of children were constantly coming to classes for 3 years.

Lots of blessings to all,
Gordana Sarson

From Gary McSweeney (Ananda Palo Alto school)

I do pranayama with teens and have taught them to meditate. I am always sure to treat them as adults, no condescension at all. I’ve also learned not to expect any heartfelt thanks at the end of the session. They sometimes seem oblivious, but I figure I’m planting a seed that could bear fruit somewhere down the line. They’re very experiential and into their bodies. If I were to offer one piece of advice, it would be to challenge them with what you teach them.