Yoga teacher explains why children should do yoga
Children’s yoga is more popular than ever. Why? And how does it work for little yogis? Yoga teacher Paula Romero talks about the benefits, the limits and reveals why children’s yoga is more strenuous than yoga for adults.
The yoga trend has long since moved on to the little ones too. They stretch on the mat into the downward-facing dog, fold their arms into an eagle shape and breathe in and out deeply. Just like the big yogis do. Yet children’s yoga is very different from yoga for adults. Paula Romero, children’s and adult yoga teacher from Zurich, tells us all about it.
Paula, why should children do yoga?
Paula Romero: Even children today need a balance in everyday life. Life nowadays is filled with high demands and stress. I’m thinking of the fast pace of today’s society, digitalisation, the pressure to perform, overstimulation, bullying ... Yoga works on many levels here and is just the right thing for balance. It provides tools and skills to promote and maintain physical, emotional and mental health.
Source: ZVG
Can’t a gymnastics lesson do that?
It can. But yoga covers many more levels. Physically, children’s yoga promotes motor skills, muscle development, stability, balance and flexibility. It supports the development of the skeleton because children’s bones are still growing. And it prevents postural damage. But in contrast to a traditional gym class, children’s yoga also has many benefits on a psychological level.
Could you give us an example?
It improves the ability to concentrate, reduces stress and strengthens resistance. Through asana (the yoga postures), breathing, concentration and meditation, the children learn how they can influence their body and mind. The yoga philosophy shares important values such as mindfulness, patience, calmness, but also self-awareness, self-confidence and acceptance of others. This broad spectrum is a big difference to a gymnastics class.
Children’s yoga doesn’t replace physiotherapy. Nor psychotherapy either.
Where does children’s yoga reach its limits?
It’s not a medicine for everyone and everything. Even if it’s good for every child, it doesn’t replace physical treatment such as physiotherapy. Nor psychotherapy either. Children with behavioural problems are often sent to yoga in the hope that they’ll become calmer. But yoga teachers aren’t therapists. We don’t diagnose or treat any disorders or syndromes. There’s children’s yoga for children with special needs. However, these take place in a framework adapted to them and only with appropriately trained teachers.
Can children practise the same asanas as adults?
In principle yes, at least most of them. It depends on the level of development, yoga experience and the respective setting. With small children, for example, you can rarely do things that require them to lean backwards, such as backbends or rolling up and down. Everything behind them still seems too abstract and frightens them. Balancing poses are also very challenging up to a certain age. Nevertheless, with some adaptions they can do them. For example, you can use the wall as an aid. Children like repetition, so it’s advisable to build up the asanas step by step and perform them again and again.
What are the differences to adult yoga?
The asanas are held for less time and are performed more dynamically. We’re usually on the move with a playful theme for example, travelling somewhere, visiting the zoo, celebrating a festival or expressing a certain season. The smaller the children, the more playful the lessons. The lessons are also structured differently.
How exactly?
With adults there’s a classic build-up and loss of energy, with children it’s constantly up and down. They need different activities to stay alert. Probably the biggest difference, however, is that the focus is on togetherness and group exchange.
Source: Picture: ZVG
Is the group less important in adult yoga?
Yes. Adults are more preoccupied with themselves during yoga practice. As a teacher, I give the exercises and provide support. I do the same in children’s yoga, but the children help shape the lessons with their ideas. Lessons are more interactive and thrive on exchange.
Which is more strenuous for you, adult yoga classes or children’s yoga classes?
Definitely children’s yoga. (laughs) Precisely because the classes are interactive and the children help to create them. This means that hardly any lessons turn out as I planned them. And that requires spontaneity and flexibility, but also patience, humour and the ability to engage with the children and their view of the world. I like to compare it to traffic; children’s yoga feels like I’m navigating traffic. I know that I’m in control of my vehicle and I have my route in my head. But I never know what other road users are doing, what speed they’re travelling at, where roadworks are coming up and where there are bypasses.
It feels like I’m navigating through traffic. I may be in control of my vehicle, but I never know what other road users are doing.
What should parents look out for when choosing a children’s yoga course?
The room should have enough space for the children to move around off the mat. The group size, on the other hand, should be manageable and the age range not too wide, otherwise their needs will be too different. It’s great when the groups remain the same so that the kids get used to each other and can progress together.
How important is it that the teacher has training in children’s yoga?
I would of course pay attention to that. The most crucial thing, however, is that the child has fun and has good things to say about the course. As with yoga for adults, a good relationship between the child and the teacher is important. The child won’t want to attend a course for long if it doesn’t like the teacher.
**Why did you decide to become a children’s yoga teacher? Because I want to share and experience the treasure of yoga with my children. I also love the exchange and the work with the children and find it very enriching. And because I keep thinking how great it would’ve been if someone had shown me these things as a child. Children are the adults of tomorrow. What we experience in childhood shapes us for the rest of our lives and is easier to recall later on.
Paula Romero is a trained yoga teacher for adults and children and co-founder of Ananda Kinder Yoga in Zurich. In recent years, she’s completed several training courses in children’s, teenager and family yoga.
Header image: Shutterstock/Tatiana Foxy
13 people like this article
Katja Fischer
Senior Editor
Katja.Fischer@digitecgalaxus.chMom of Anna and Elsa, aperitif expert, group fitness fanatic, aspiring dancer and gossip lover. Often a multitasker and a person who wants it all, sometimes a chocolate chef and queen of the couch.
