Postural Control activities are exactly what you’d think. You’re testing balance and body control. Not always easy for a toddler or school-aged kid.
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Motor Planning: Animal Dice
To find this week’s Motor Planning activity, in addition to the activities in Growing an In-Sync Child, I also browsed activities on Pinterest.
Lots of themed yoga, obstacle courses; things designed to get your kid’s body into different shapes. But what to pick when it seems like your kid’s attention span is particularly short?
Continue readingYoga For All: A How-To Yoga Guide for Kids
Yoga is simple enough that your child can do it.
Here’s some suggestions for your kid at any age.
Namaste All Day: Kids Yoga
By now, we’re all pretty familiar about the perks of yoga. It promotes our overall health and well-being, reduces stress, and helps us “find our center.” The practice has been trending in the past decade and schools have even implemented it to help guide children’s focus and self-regulation.
Research has shown positive outcomes from regular yoga practice, including:
- Increased attention, decreased hyperactivity, and faster task completion in 5-year-olds who completed yoga 2x/week
- Mental and emotional benefits in children ages 5-18 years, including decreased anxiety, boosted concentration and memory, improved confidence and self-esteem, and improved academic performance
- Brain scans revealing reduced activation of the amygdala (the part of the brain responsible for emotions and arousal levels) in 6th graders
- Improvements in attention as well as decreased oppositional behaviors, restlessness, and impulsivity following 20 sessions of yoga with boys diagnosed with ADHD
- Improvements in imitation and play with peers in children with ASD following 10 months of yoga 5 days/week
Sounds good on paper, but yoga with kids can be intimidating. “Am I doing this right? Can kids even do these poses?”
It’s not just a bunch of poses and breathing. Although that notion is partially true, there’s more to it. The goal of yoga is to grow self-awareness, connecting the mind and the body to the present moment. It’s because of this broadness that makes participation in its practice easy.
Continue readingBeginner In-Sync Activities
The girls came down with some long-lasting fevers and coughs this past week, so we’re finally coming around to our In-Sync activities. It’s hard to get your kids moving, when all they want to do is sleep it off on the couch. But now we’re up and running and trying something new.
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