Among other benefits, Yoga for Special Needs:
• Promotes movement and develops focus.
• More body control, strength, balance, posture and stamina.
• Limitations more easily accepted and often a way to work through them.
• Digestion can be improved.
• Can reduce pain in limbs.
• Helps with breathing.
• Promotes confidence and a positive outlook. A Typical Yoga Session
I help the child to move on the mat where I support them in my arms, gently manipulating their arms and legs to stretch out and relax. Fully supporting the child, I encourage them to use their own muscles in the positions for a few seconds. The yoga breathing techniques help to calm children who have anxiety issues and some can learn to use these methods to help calm themselves, allowing them to be more relaxed, coordinated and able to follow directions better. Yoga is a way to introduce children to a method of stretching, breathing, body awareness and posture development using an approach that they may not have experienced before. Many children may have been doing some form of standard physical, occupational and/or speech therapies most of their lives and find the holistic system of yoga complementary, motivating, strengthening and calming. Yoga offers something new to those with special-needs and it allows them to be able do some of the things that able-bodied people can, hugely increasing confidence and lessening frustration. When they become familiar with the yoga poses, some can prompt themselves to put yoga the methods into practice to help control themselves when suffering anxiety, frustration or fatigue. I travel to the client’s home to make yoga more accessible, personal and confidential. About me
I am a fully qualified Yoga teacher, stress management consultant and massage therapist, with over 20 years’ experience, both in the UK and abroad. I am a qualified teacher of Integral Yoga, a registered Yoga training school in the UK through the Independent Yoga Network. Naturally, I am fully insured and DBS checked. I am specially trained for people with limitations, disabilities and mental health issues, having furthered my training at ‘The Special Yoga Centre’ in London. Special Yoga for Special Children
This style of yoga provides an adaptive programme to enhance harmoniously the natural development of children with special needs. It is gentle and therapeutic – safe for babies and children with a range of developmental disabilities including Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Autism and others, also providing an effective treatment for children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, ADHD and Learning Disabilities. This unique therapeutic yoga method, with its stretching, breathing and singing, helps promote the child's focus and helps them to feel more connected to and comfortable with their bodies, as well as bringing a sense of wellbeing; it has been proven to improve the lives of children with special needs and provide considerable support for their families and carers. Please watch this 8 minute video link https://youtu.be/oYeInOQPNUI which will give an insight into the wonderful work accomplished at the Special Yoga Centre in London, and the therapeutic yoga available through teachers, like myself, who have furthered our specialist training there. Wendy Sugg
Nov 2015
