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Although there is no therapeutic mechanism for children with special needs, Yoga can help them improve the quality of their life while learning something worthwhile. Children with special needs are those affected by Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or sensory processing disorders.
Special classes need to be designed for children with each different type of special needs. Their retarded development makes them unable to grasp regular Yoga exercises designed for normal people. Along with the special classes, a unique Yoga exercise program needs to be designed for each different group of children affected by a specific disorder.
Such an exercise program needs to be devised after assessing exactly the specific developmental issues faced by each different group of children with a specific disorder. Knowing about the exact developmental issues is very important. Otherwise, it is bound to fail as the children will not be able to respond to your teaching them.
The next task on the agenda is to select/tailor the Yoga exercise in such a way that will; help the children cope better with the specific development lacuna faced by them. If need be the teaching of each exercise needs to be broken down into several small steps which the children will find easier to grasp and to repeat.
Developing awareness is important. You need to teach the exercise as if it were a game to be played and not something enforced. Instilling confidence in each child is a very important part of the teaching.
Patience is very important considering the retarded mental/physical state and/or physical developmental issues faced by the children. However, no leeway for the retardation need be shown to a child because then he/she will not be able to learn at all. You need to enforce a certain amount of discipline. However, adequate care should be taken that no child should be punished for not being in a position to grasp your teaching.
Remember, regardless of the specific issues faced by the children, they can still grasp your teaching of a Yoga exercise. This is true, provided you have broken it down into the requisite number of simple steps. Children who are facing the same type of specific disorder are all equals and doing them in a group affords great learning benefits.
You will find that the laggards learn very fast from the peers among the children. Sometimes, it may just happen that a particular child who has picked up the Yoga exercise skill well offers help to the other children in his/her group. You need to encourage such interaction for it fosters brotherhood among the children.
You can understand the joy of a child with special needs when he/she overcomes his/her development issue and is able to do a certain Yoga exercise well. It builds mental confidence in his/her ability to improve the quality of life in the long term. Parental support to a child with special needs is imperative if the Yoga exercise program devised by you is to succeed.
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