Louise Goldberg - Yoga Therapy for Children with Autism and Special Needs

A Norton Professional Book

YOGA THERAPY

for CHILDREN

with AUTISM and

SPECIAL NEEDS

Louise Goldberg

W. W. Norton & Company

New York London

To my husband Rich Foss my partner in all things

Contents

M Y FIRST YOGA class was held in a locker room in January 1979. It was supposed to be in the gym at the small south Florida college, but there was a scheduling conflict and we got bumped by the weightlifters.

I must confess that Im not much of a fan of locker rooms; I dont like the smell of dirty socks and sweat. Lined up on the floor between the lockers, I couldnt even see my teachers face as she weaved her way through the oddly shaped room. Still, as I lay on the cold, hard floor, I could hear the rhythmic tones of her voice guiding me into unusual positions. I heard her gentle reminders to breathe, breathe, breathe. The smell and feel of the locker room fell away; I was home.

Late that spring, my mother and I went to our favorite deli in Massachusetts for a corned beef sandwichmy last, everbefore I boarded the bus to Montreal. From there I traveled north to the Sivananda Yoga Camp in the Laurentian Mountains, where I pitched my pup tent on the mountainside. I had come for three weeks and stayed for three months. The following summer I traveled to Europe to study at the Sivananda Centers in London, Paris, and Geneva. I returned to the ashram in Canada to take my Yoga Teacher Training course in the summer of 1981.

The yogic life, as instructed by Swami Vishnudevananda at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, is an ascetic, disciplined existence, with equal attention paid to proper exercise, proper breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet, positive thinking (deep philosophy) and meditation (1960, p. xi). The teacher certification required a month-long commitment to the ashram life and intense study of the science of yoga. The wake-up bell at 5:30 each morning signaled the call to meditation, followed by Sanskrit chant. There were two-hour hatha yoga classes twice daily on the bare wooden deck outsideno cushions or props. Each day included hours of instruction on the principles of yoga, posture ( asana ) and breathing ( pranayama ), the philosophy of The Bhagavad Gita, anatomy and physiology, ancient cleansing practices ( kriyas ), and Sanskrit chant. I ate two vegan meals per day and practiced karma yoga to keep the ashram clean and organized. Late each evening after meditation, I trekked back up the mountain and crawled into my sleeping bag. That summer was the beginning of a lifetime of study and practice in becoming a yoga teacher.

Returning to south Florida, where I had become an adjunct member of the English Department at Broward College, I began teaching yoga in the Physical Education Department. While the students in my composition classes strived to complete the perfect sentence, my yoga students across campus learned to quiet their minds. My English students left class as tense and preoccupied as they had arrived; my yoga students left class humming and serene. That disparity didnt seem fair (Goldberg, 2004a).

One test day, seeing my English students knotted brows, I shared a simple abdominal breathing exercise. Despite their initial eye rolling and quizzical looks, the students faces began to relax. Gradually I added neck rotations and shoulder shrugs on writing days. Watching my students breathing deepen and their bodies release tension after just a few minutes of yoga made me realize how easily it could be introduced into conventional classrooms.

In 1982 my teacher and friend Carole Goya and I began teaching yoga to children K12 with emotional behavior disorders at a state hospital in the Broward County Public Schools. I had been an educator for a decade by that time, first teaching English at the middle and high school levels, and then becoming a reading specialist for middle school children with varied learning disabilities. Still, nothing had prepared me for the challenges of teaching yoga to children with emotional behavioral disorders, low functioning autism, and other severe emotional and neurological disorders.

As one accustomed to the effectiveness of language, I was surprised to discover the limitations of words in conveying what I wanted to teach in yoga. I learned to rely on touch and movement, pace and rhythm, the quality of my voice and my breathing. There were times that Carole and I looked helplessly at one another; the children were tangled around our arms, our legs, or each other. But there were also moments of stillness, an unfamiliar calm.

The classroom teachers and administrators were as amazed as we were at the moments of quiet in yoga. So many of the childrens problemsbeing withdrawn, insecure, anxious, hyperactive, dissociated from others and their own bodiesseemed to be addressed through yoga posture and breathing. Opening the chest, grounding the feet and hands, deepening the breath, focusing on one point, and interacting with others occurred naturally through the practice. I began to see children change.

As a licensed massage therapist, I started incorporating touch in my work. I discovered the calming effects of steady pressure or a reassuring hand for many children. These tools provided another form of communicating with children with special needs that is often less confusing than words. To help educators and therapists implement yoga-based programs for varied needs, I began a certification program in Creative Relaxation, Yoga Therapy for Children with Autism and Special Needs.

Yoga therapy is a wonderful medium for teaching children many skills. It is fun, it is balancing for all kinds of bodies, and it fosters imagination. Yoga therapy teaches self-control and self-calming and promotes ethical interaction with others. It enhances self-esteem and the skills needed to attend and be still. Children learn to inhabit their bodies with greater efficiency and awareness.

Most children are natural yogis. They love to move and play and bend their bodies into varied shapes and forms. Yoga therapy levels the field between adults and children. Getting down on hands and knees, we share the childs physical perspective. Yoga therapy speaks the universal language of touch, helping children learn to receive and use touch for body awareness and calming. Yoga lends itself to a visual curriculum, with postures inspired from nature or familiar objects. Finally, yoga fosters creativity. Children become dogs, cats, trees, and butterflies. Even as their bodies follow our instructions, their imaginations soar!

Yoga therapy offers tools for improving physical strength, flexibility, and balance; increasing self-confidence and self-awareness; learning to process sensory information; practicing methods for calming and focusing the mind; and fostering imagination. Sharing an ancient philosophy in a noncompetitive, supportive environment is a gift that serves a child into adulthood. Yoga therapy feels good to youngsters, and it is fun. That makes it a delight for the therapist, as well.

What You Will Find in the Pages Ahead

This book begins with an overview of everything you need before beginning instruction. Chapter 1 begins with a brief history of yoga and distinguishes it from yoga therapy. The chapter introduces methods of providing yoga therapy to children with special needs. The second chapter describes the assessment process, including gathering medical history and background information, tools for developing a therapeutic plan, and a system of assessing its effectiveness. (Appendix 2 summarizes this process.) Chapter 3 provides a description of the special needs that will be explored and discusses properties of yoga therapy that suit it to a child with each condition. The fourth chapter outlines physical, emotional, and sensory benefits of yoga therapy, including relief from stress, connection building, and increased self-awareness. In Chapter 5, Ten Golden Rules offer guidelines for interacting with children with special needs.