Yoga for Children with Special Needs with Rachael Roe

Transcript

[Music] hi my name is rachel and i'm a yoga teacher yoga is simply the action of measuring our breath relaxing our body and connecting our mind today we're going to do a very simple yoga class with kids with special needs but this class can be used for anybody that wants to get a little deeper into their yoga practice the first thing i'm going to ask you to do is find a comfortable seat on the floor you can either sit cross-legged like me but if this is not comfortable for you you can put your legs out or behind you or beside you so come now into your comfortable position and if you are the caregiver i'll be giving you prompts as well to help your child once you've found that comfortable position you can either prompt your child to keep their eyes open if that's more comfortable or if they can to simply close their eyes and we're going to take a moment to locate all of our body parts you can touch the body parts as i say them or if you're the caregiver you can gently tap each body part so the child can feel it so let's start with the top of our head tap your head come and tap the area between your eyes tap your chin and tap your throat tap your shoulders tap your elbows tap your wrists tap your side right here tap your hips tap your belly tap your thighs tap your knees tap your shins or your ankles and tap your feet coming back and placing your hands quietly on your knees now from here we're going to take some breaths so i would like you if you can to breathe from your nose but if you can't you can breathe whatever way is comfortable we're gonna take a deep breath and i'm gonna count to five and we're gonna hold it and then we're gonna let go so it's gonna look like this one two three four five hold it and out one two three four five if you're the caregiver make really loud sounds so the child can hear you breathe in and breathe out so ready breathe in one two three four five hold it breathe out one two three four five good job so now that we have our breath we're gonna imagine a little bit imagine that there's a balloon in your belly when you blow up a balloon it gets bigger so your belly's gonna get bigger and when the balloon deflates it gets smaller so we're gonna make our bellies big with breath and then small as we breathe it out so ready breathe in big belly hold it and breathe out small belly inflate that balloon in big belly and breathe out small belly one more time breathe in big belly and breathe out small belly great job now that you've heard from me a little bit i want you to tell me your name if you can shout your name really loud to me perfect if you can't maybe your caregiver shout your name really loud great my name is rachel the next thing we're gonna do is we are going to stand up so if everyone can stand up with me so come up up up up up up up great job and we're gonna shake it out so shake out all of those sillies shake it shake it shake it shake it shake it shake it perfect we're gonna sing a little song so we can learn all of our body parts and then we're gonna have a little bit of fun so i'm gonna sing the song first and then you're gonna sing it with me ready head shoulders wrist elbows wrist elbows head shoulders wrist elbows wrist elbows hips and knees ankles and toes head shoulders wrist elbows wrist elbows okay i want everybody to sing it with me so stand up if you're sitting and i want you to sing it and touch those body parts okay are you ready head shoulders wrist elbows wrist elbows head shoulders wrist elbows wrist elbows hips and knees ankles and toes head shoulders wrist elbows wristo bows good job shake it out again and i want you to come back and meet me on the floor so before we start our practice we're going to wiggle our fingers and our toes so take your hands out in front of you and wiggle your fingers can you make all of your fingers wiggle if this is too hard try one hand and the next hand wiggle your fingers wiggle your wrists good job wiggle your shoulders and wiggle your whole arm great job put your legs out in front of you and wiggle your toes can you wiggle your toes wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle your ankles and wiggle your feet great so i'm gonna need some help with your imagining we're gonna imagine a couple different animals so our first animal is gonna be a snake who has seen a snake before a snake slithers so let's come on to our bellies on the floor great job and then we're gonna come up onto our forearms which is this body part right here and place your forearm on the ground remember our fingers spread them wide and slither on the ground perfect so from the side it's gonna look like this slither slither slither slither slither great job caregivers make sure that they're pressing down on their forearms pressing up into their fingers and looking forward good how does this feel this is going to help a lot if you have lower back pain if you're sitting at a desk for a long time good job everyone perfect that's our first shape our next one is our cats and our cows who've seen a cat before a cat's gonna go meow and a cow is gonna go moo so first we're gonna place our hands onto the ground just like this and we're gonna make sure that our fingers are spread wide taking our shoulders over our wrists and then we're gonna take our hips over our knees good job you're gonna drop your belly down and you're gonna look up and you're gonna say move good can everybody come to this pose our fingers are spread wide our shoulders are over our wrists my hips are over our knees and i'm gonna drop my belly down and look up and say moo moo perfect let's do a cat now so the same position here we're gonna take our belly and we're gonna try to see if we can hit the sky with it so take your belly all the way up around it and say meow meow perfect look at my shoulders are over my wrists my fingers are spread wide my hips are over my knees and i'm trying to get my belly button to go up so belly button comes up and you say meow beautiful drop your belly down so belly's come down looking up saying move and belly comes up bellies go up meow one more time bellies go down saying moo looking up and last time bellies go up and say meow good job those are some great poses our next pose we're gonna come up to standing so if everyone can join me up up up who's seen a tree before right so our tree we need the trunk of the tree so you're gonna take one leg and that's gonna be your nice strong trunk you're going to take your next leg and you're going to come on to your tippy toes and point your knee away from you and that's our tree super easy then we're going to take our hands and we're going to bring them up up up up like branches good job everyone these are our trees maybe we're gonna sway from side to side nice and come down next side so our next foot is gonna be our trunk our next leg it's going to come up just like this knee points away from you and bring your fingers up like branches swing side to side good job coming down and shaking it out shake shake shake shake our next one is gonna be our dog it's gonna be a little tricky so we're gonna walk through it spread your hands nice and wide place them on the ground good job again our shoulders are gonna be in line with our wrists then we're gonna take our feet and we're gonna walk them back behind us good job and try to get that tailbone or that butt sticking all the way up to the sky good job and now you can shake your tail and say woof woof woof perfect good job everyone now take your eyes and try to look at your belly button and say woof woof woof beautiful dogs this one might take a little bit of time so let's get in it again together we're gonna take our hands spread them wide place them on the ground get our shoulders over our wrists walk our legs back and wag your tail saying woof peeking under that belly button how's everyone doing good our very last animal is our frog what a frog say yup frogs say ribbit so we're going to come over here and we're gonna spread our wet legs nice and wide and we're gonna try to sit down placing our hands together and say ribbit ribbit good job nice if you want maybe you're gonna even jump rip it perfect the next part of this i want everyone to come up with your own animal so whatever animal you want make your animal now nice use your legs use your arms make an animal sound great job everyone made some great animals keep going perfect now after all of that work i think we need to cool down a little bit so i want everyone to come back to the ground and i want you to sit down with your legs out in front of you nice shake your legs shake your legs shake your legs and i want you to breathe in and try to touch your toes great holding it here breathing breathing breathing and then grab one leg and cross it over the other perfect grab that foot and give yourself a little massage so gentle nice little massage if you're a caregiver sitting next to a child maybe you help them massage their feet lots of tactile points perfect place it back grab your next foot cross it over give yourself a little massage here nice job perfect foot comes back out in front of you shake it out shake it out shake it out check it out check it out our last breath just like we did that balloon we're gonna do an alligator so i want everybody to think what does an alligator do an alligator goes chomp chomp chomp we're gonna make our breath like that so we're gonna breathe in big and we're going to chomp down great breathe in big chomp down breathe in big jump down perfect now everyone lie down on the ground so i'm going to lie down with you lay down on the ground however feels comfortable and again if you're a caregiver you can come and help touch the different parts of the body as we relax them so we're gonna relax our head relax our shoulders relax our arms relax our side relax our hips relax our legs relax our ankles and relax our feet relax our whole body breathe in and out breathe in and out and breathe in and out shake and wiggle our fingers and our toes roll over to our side this is baby our fetal position this is where you started when you were so little in your mommy's tummy and gently push yourself up and join me back and seated place your hands together in front of your hearts and we're going to say a magic word to end the class the word is namaste that means peace can you all say it with me thank you so much for joining me today it was an honor to be your yoga teacher [Music] you