Motor Skills

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  • Motor planning. Motor planning involves transforming an idea or thought into a neuromuscular code that the muscles can understand.  Motor planning is highly involved in speech production and feeding.  Gross motor planning (e.g. in the muscles of the core) must be stable in order for fine motor planning (such as speech or eating) to occur successfully. 

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Language Skills

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  • Experience with action (i.e. verb) concepts. While practicing yoga, children get real life experience with action concepts such as “turn, reach, push, spread, extend, flip, lift,” supporting vocabulary development.
  • Experience with spatial (i.e. preposition) concepts. While practicing yoga, children get real life experience with spatial terms such as,

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Cognitive Skills

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  • Self-monitoring and awareness. Through yoga, children get to monitor their motor plan to see if it matches the adult model.  Yoga teaches children how to become aware of their breath, where their body parts are in space, and the physical space they are practicing in.  Self-monitoring involves teaching students how to independently observe whether they are engaging in appropriate behavior at a particular time.

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Social Skills

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  • Transitioning (i.e. changing from activity to another). Transitioning is often very difficult for kids with special needs.  Yoga teaches children how to gracefully transition from one pose to the next.  Yoga also teaches children how to transition into the yoga space (e.g. removing shoes/socks, setting up the mat, getting settled on the mat) and out of the yoga space (e.g.

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