Active Kids Making the News

Yoga Exercises Improve Kids Anxiety

"Giovengo is a research clinician at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. She heads up a research project there on "Yoga for Anxious Children."

She has been practicing yoga for years, but only has been teaching it for the last two.

"It's kind of combining my interests," she said. Yoga "is something I use as a tool to manage stress, so I think it would be a useful practice for kids. Stress isn't just for adults. Neither is yoga."

Research on the impact of yoga on children is scarce because the practice is fairly new, but the health benefits for adults are well documented, said William Stixrud, a clinical psychologist in Silver Spring, Md., who recommends yoga to anxious children he sees in his private practice.

"Children's yoga can increase self-awareness, build self-esteem and strengthen young bodies," wrote Sean Tearney, who runs several Web-related businesses in Australia geared to improving student performance in school. "It can help coordinate brain functions, balance right and left brain and aid relaxation. Yoga has also been proven to improve concentration, so around exam time a course of children's yoga sessions could make all the difference."

"Yoga teaches kids how to use their bodies appropriately, how to breathe appropriately," Giovengo said. "It's such a well-rounded program, especially for kids with anxiety.""

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Yoga For Confident Kids

“With childhood obesity rates on the rise, parents and educators are desperately seeking a solution to the problem. While it seems wise and necessary to teach kids about nutrition and calorie reduction, experts suggest a more comprehensive solution. Research shows that building self-esteem through physical fitness and activity seems to be much more effective than only preaching about carbs, fats and protein.

Being active and engaged allows children to develop confidence, social skills and an overall desire towards becoming a proactive participant in their own lives. Without the sense of achievement and mastery that comes with learning something new, children can easily regress and find emotional comfort from food….

Require your children to have 2 interests. That’s right, require or insist upon this! Give them plenty of options but strongly encourage them to select 2 activities that they are committed to. I suggest one being for the body (i.e. gymnastics, soccer, dance, softball, etc.) and one for the mind (i.e. story time, arts and crafts, music, etc.) This way they can develop and explore both their physical and emotional interests."

Yoga For the Kids

By Janna Farley

ArgusLeader.com

"With their bodies tall and arms stretched high, Val Ahrendt's yoga students concentrate on breathing deeply while positioning their young bodies in the tree pose... "The classess consist of activities that stimulate the mind and the body at the same time." she says.  Ahrendt connects with her students through creative expression, games and stories.  Breathing exercises are punctuated by the loud "choo, choo, choo" of a train.  She has the kids pretend to be seeds before they stand up, stretch tall and become trees.

The yoga activities help increase kids' strength and coordination while boosting their body awareness.  "It's about building a positive relationship with exercise and activity,"  Ahrendt says.

University of Michigan pediatrician Dolores Mendelow says yoga, if done properly, is a suitable alternative to tumbling and team sports for getting stressed out, sedentary children socialising, exercising and building discipline."

Children benefit from yoga practice

LJWorld.com

"When Alayna Kurek panicked one day about forgotten homework, the 9-year-old stunned her school counselor by using a yoga breathing technique to calm down.

That stress-relief method is a reason Sherri Kurek says she takes her two children, Alayna and Olivia, 7, to classes for kids at the Yoga Studio of Shelby.

“It’s the one thing they stick with,” says Kurek, an in-home transcriptionist from Shelby Township, Mich.

Alayna gets exercise, going from downward-facing dog position to cobra to frog. And her improved confidence shows when she teaches her classmates how to pretzel up, Kurek says...

A preliminary study of pediatric health benefits of yoga, published in 2008, finds motor skills and concentration improvements on top of better posture and breathing."