Chapters (7)

Smart Yoga Mat Promotes Growth And Learning For Kids With Special Needs

OnlyGood TV · 2:26

In this practice

Key teachings

Social thinking
Personal boundaries
Spatial awareness
Self-empowerment

Ideal for

Children with special needs
Children with autism
Parents and educators of children with special needs

Lesson

Instructions

** OGTV shares this story for National Disability Week to show that with a little imagination and hard work, doors can be opened for those with special needs. **

Elizabeth Goranson is the owner and founder of Stretch What Matters, an organization which instructs yoga to children with special needs.

She practiced yoga on her own, but never thought to bring it into her classroom. Her daughter Grace, who was born with special needs, gave her the idea to start Stretch What Matters.

By using yoga as a vehicle to teach social thinking as well as personal boundaries, Elizabeth designed her own Stretch What Matters yoga mat with outlines and colors for hand and foot placement. This opened a world of possibilities for kids with autism while teaching them colors and spatial awareness.

Her ultimate goal is to reach more people: “My biggest message is that children with special needs are exactly what they are supposed to be, they are perfect the way they are. Yoga comes in and if we trust that they are who they are, we can expand as people.”

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This OnlyGood TV Original was produced and edited by Matt Walczak.

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Steps

Adapted yoga poses
Guided hand and foot placement using color-coded mat
Color recognition
Spatial awareness exercises

Benefits

Reduces anxiety
Improves self-management
Develops spatial awareness
Fosters self-empowerment
Enhances social thinking
Promotes calmness

Transcript

[Music] i was a special education teacher for over 10 years i started bringing yoga into the classroom and the response was immediate to see them go from a place of anxiety and mismanagement of themselves to a place of awareness and this possibility of i can be calm and learn something i made the decision to leave the classroom and start the yoga business and my last day of teaching was the day that i had grace grace has special needs and because i was so invested in the yoga and the meditation for those with special needs i realized that i was more equipped as a parent you meet in life you meet certain people that you know that they are special and that's what elizabeth is she's the person that brings to life the possibility for so many kids with autism it's overwhelming one night i was really relaxed and i wasn't thinking about the class or anything and it just popped in my head this idea for this mat and it was so clear that i just started painting mats and it was like night and day with this student i never have to invade in his personal space the mat is extremely easily accessible for him so color coding it teaches him colors it teaches him spatial awareness and it instills a sense of control and instills a sense of self-empowerment in him so it's not i'm teaching him how to do it he's discovering and investigating how to do it on his own and then i just went all the way with it so i realized that painting mats got really exhausting for my husband too because he was painting them and i just figured it out and now people all over the u.s are receiving the benefits of the yoga system in their homes and in schools and it's a really big dream come true [Music] you

Practice summary

Level: all levels
Duration: 2 minutes
Equipment: Smart yoga mat (Stretch What Matters mat)Yoga mat
Target areas: Cognitive developmentMotor skillsEmotional regulationSocial skillsBody awareness
Energy: balancing

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