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Yoga and Down Syndrome (April 2005)

ORIGINAL QUESTION:

From Vida B. Slana, AYTT graduate of August 2002 from Slovenia, EU

My brother has Down syndrome (also known as Down's syndrome), and I have the opportunity and challenge to teach yoga to him and other child or older people for special needs.

Could you give me of any information concerning Yoga for a Down syndrome?

I find only one book: Yoga for the Special Child, I am going to be teaching also older people.

I would like any suggestions, advice or experience for teaching people with special needs.

Many blessings and you all of you,
Vida

ANSWERS:

From M-C Cuthill

Hello.  I only teach special needs students (referred from physical therapists, acupuncturists, doctors, etc.), the majority of my students are seniors and I do have two intellectually challenged students.  I have been teaching in conjunction with a physical therapist for the past several years -  utilizing his space.

I am sorry I cannot recommend any books to you - have not been able to find any myself!  I do initially discuss my students conditions if possible with whoever referred them (especially with the pt's) and for the intellectually challenged I have access to their medical files and am in close contact with caregivers - especially for medication changes.

My best advice is to keep your classes small.  And to limit your classes to one hour at the most.  And to give very clear, precise directions for poses focusing on alignment and strength building.  And to use lots of props - I use heavy oversize towels instead of blankets (which are too heavy for some to lift and too cumbersome to fold), foam blocks and straps.  I start out new students with one or more private lessons.  During these classes I have time to assess their special needs, introduce them to basic poses and mark their mats for some positions (like Trikonasana).  I have two "levels" of classes - those students who have been attending twice a week for 6 months or more are mostly in one class (which is larger) and newcomers and the intellectually challenged students are in other separate classes.  Otherwise, it's too exhausting for me and it does seem to work better for the students.

All the very best.  Namaste.
Mary-Catherine Cuthill, AYTT February 2005

From Veena Grover, graduate of 2003 from {AYTT] wonderful yoga school & Great staff

I worked with kids during my martial art training. Little Suggestions are-very helpful (keep it very simple) The physical benefit of ancient Chinese Tai-Chi like stretching, using big exercise ball lying supine position on the ball little by little enjoying & relaxing on the ball & using ball for supine position relaxes the whole body.    

Allow students to find their way in a simple way, flow move breathing & touch of ball will relax them & individual attention builds the self-esteem, which is very important. The joy on their face & stretching either arms on sides or above the head, standing feet shoulder-width apart or wider stands, which we call "Horsy Stand" & little by little add simple dance moves.

When spring comes, the grass grows by itself, Moves blossom on children with Relaxation & personal attention.

Blessings, veena.   

From Susan Hayes, AYTT graduate August 1999

I would recommend that you look on the Yoga Journal website for an old article that may have been in that magazine about yoga for Downs Syndrome kids.  If not in Yoga Journal, then try Yoga International.  If not Yoga International, maybe Ascent magazine (out of Canada)?  And, if you are DESPERATE and can't find it anywhere on-line, let me know by e-mail (susan@mountaintopyoga.com) and I will mail it to you in Europe, if I can find it in my back-issues of all those magazines.

Susan Hayes

From Stuart Moody

The International Association of Yoga Therapists is a good resource for research on therapeutic uses of yoga.  Their website (www.iayt.org) has some free online bibliographies on yoga research (on topics such depression, pain, and psycho physiological effects).  About two dozen other topics (including anxiety, autism, children, and so on) are available at a charge.

For Down syndrome, I called the IAYT office.  Apparently the book you have, by Sonya Sumar, is the key reference right now.  For a broad overview from a medical/educational perspective, you may appreciate "The Child with Special Needs," by Stanley Greenspan, M.D., and Serena Wieder, Ph.D. (Reading, Massachusetts:  Perseus Books, 1998).  Their introduction proposes "six basic developmental skills – functional milestones" that lay the base for all learning and development.  Children with special needs have greater needs or deficits in one or more of these skills.  In a chapter on "Special-Needs Syndromes," they offer a hopeful approach:  identify the different processing problems; then key your interventions to the particular "component skills" (sensory-motor functions) and/or "orchestra conductor" issues (ability to link intent and action – essentially the expression of what Yogananda called will).

"We haven't tested the limits of the abilities of children with Down syndrome and many other syndromes," say Greenspan and Wider, "because we haven't involved them in an intervention program that addresses both intent or affect and the component skills" (p. 345).  Yoga can do this quite successfully, I am sure.  Anything that we do to wake up the intelligence of the body and engage the heart, mind, and senses -- when administered with sensitivity, awareness, and love -- must be therapeutic and uplifting.

Best wishes,

Stuart Moody
AYT Nov 03

From Jeff Moore, AYTT grad August 2001, Los Angeles

Dear Vida,

I have only worked with one child with Downs and only a short time. I had a student with severe cerebral palsy type symptoms that I worked with a few times per week for over one year. I have Sumars book and it is the only help I could find and I strongly recommend it. I didn't follow it rigidly but it really gave me a good starting point and tons of inspiration to give it a try.

Maybe this is obvious but the degree and type of challenges that these people face is very individual. My preference is to work with them one on one. My students of this type have been way too challenged to be thinking about postures the way we do with most people. The Downs child I had was the most able of all. He was eager to mimic me and imitated the postures I did very well. He just wanted to have fun and be treated as normal instead of special. I was told he couldn't vocalize but he did with me because I never asked him to (I just chanted ohm with the harmonium). I was told he would not participate in rolling a ball for a game of catch, but he did. My students have been kids and they turn off to that condescending tone they get so often, or statements like "well little Johnny can't do this or can't do that...." As a yoga teacher you can tune into the student with your heart and try to feel what they want or need and find creative ways to get them there, instead of trying to make them do things other "normal" students do.

Little things I learned with special kids:

  1. Never ever talk about them in the third person when they are present, even if the parents or other specialists do and even if they supposedly don't hear, speak or understand.
  2. Find ways to make them successful in whatever they are trying to do. How aggressive you are about this depends on how much perseverance and how much previous success the student has had in the past. It's great to push people's limits, but with special needs I feel it is more important to establish a baseline experience that is successful and fun first. They often have too much experience that is negative already.
  3. Those with difficulty communicating just want to be heard. You can hear them with your heart. Pray deeply to be guided and trust what you feel. Watch their eyes and even tiny finger movements very carefully. It's like you're a detective. If you take the time there is a good chance you may pick up on what they are trying to do. Take what the parents or caregivers say seriously, but don't forget that your perspective is fresh and new, and you may see something that they have overlooked or just given up on. It's very hard for them not to do so.
  4. Those with physical difficulty just want to be free. I have had great experience with kids who can't walk, or barely could, by laying them on a very large physio ball face down and softly bouncing them so they could feel "light."
  5. Like any students we teach, one of the most important things is to let them know they are respected, loved, and are doing a good job of trying no matter what happens.

Your people may be quite different than mine but I wanted to share what I learned just in case.

If you want to email me directly please do  jeff@ahimsayoga.com

Joy to You!

Jeff