Why Disabled Children Should Do Yoga
Many disabled children and adults do not move around as much as people without disabilities. It is important
to keep the child’s or adults muscles strong with movement for exercise. Yoga has a calming effect on people, too.
Yoga Tips for Disabled Children and/or Adults
Make yoga fun for the child or adult that has the mind of a child. For instance, you and your child/adult can
do yoga together. Depending on the age and ability of your child you can do different moves. For a young child you can use
the A,B,C’s to do yoga. Do each exercise slowly for forty five seconds. Feel free to put on some gentle music. I will
refer to the person doing the yoga as a child.
A is for ant. Have the child lie down on the floor on a yoga mat and move slowly in a crawl like an ant.
B is for bat. Show the child how to flap their arms like a bat would with its wings.
C is for cat. Have the child hunch his or her back like a cat. Put each hand out and form fingers like a cat
that is clawing at something.
D is for dog. Have the child down on his/her hands and knees. “Walk” around like a dog.
E is for elephant. Have the child stand and swing his/her two hands with clasped fingers back and forth.
F is for fish. Have the child move his/her mouth like a fish breathing.
G is for gorilla. Have the child move his/her arms like a gorilla would when excited.
H is for hermit crab. Have the child crawl on the floor like a hermit crab would look for food.
I is for igloo. Pretend to be shivering like an Eskimo in the cold snow.
J is for Jack-in-the-box. Pop out of a box just like a Jack-in-the-box.
K is for karate. Do some slow motion karate kicks with your child.
L is for lion. Roar like a lion stretching your facial muscles. This is child yoga so noise is okay.
M is for monkey. Pretend to peel and eat a banana just like a monkey.
N is for naughty. Pretend to climb on top of your parents counter to steal a cookie.
O is for ostrich. Stand on one foot like an ostrich. Next stand on the other foot.
P is for peacock. Have the child spread his/her arms out like a peacock’s feathers.
Q is for queen. Walk around like a magnificent queen. (Boys may pretend to be a "quality" king.)
R is for run. Run to some place fun.
T is for turtle. Slowly crawl on the floor like a turtle.
U is for umbrella. Sit cris-crossed and slowly have the child open his/her arms like an umbrella opening up.
V is for violin. Have the child pretend to play the violin with his/her right hand and switch off to the left
hand.
W is for wolf. Sit down on the mat and have the child stretch his/her neck and howl like a wolf.
X is for xylophone. Have the child pretend he/she is playing a xylophone.
Y is for yoga. Do some slow stretches for one minute and deep breaths.
Z is for zombie. Have the child close his/her eyes and slowly walk like a zombie with your help so as not to
walk into anything.
Summary
Stretch,
have fun and have quality time together while doing yoga with a disabled child. Modify exercises if the child is in a wheelchair.
Use your imagination with words to slowly stretch to together.
