Yoga for Kids with All Kinds of Needs

We used to call it Special Needs, but now we say Additional Needs—and I absolutely LOVE that! Because let’s be honest… don’t we all have additional needs? I know I do! Some unmet ones, too 😄

All Kids Are Special…

But some kids simply need a little extra support—extra care, extra presence, extra love. And yoga is the perfect vehicle to give them that.

No matter who’s in your class, you CAN teach them yoga. You just need to remember one golden rule:

🧘♂️ Open your eyes. Open your ears. Open your heart. Open your mind.

See who is in front of you—and start from where they are.

Not from where your plan begins.

Not from where the textbook says they should be.

Not even from where society expects them to be.

But from right here, right now. That’s how transformation begins.

 

✅ Yoga for Physical Additional Needs

Let’s explore some ways to adapt yoga for children with different physical abilities. You’ll see that there’s always a way to practise yoga!

👀 For Blind or Vision-Impaired Kids

  • Use more verbal instruction and lots of hands-on guidance.

  • Their spatial awareness is often brilliant—they just need initial support

  • Start with helping them into poses physically; after a few times, they’ll remember!


👂 For Deaf or Hearing-Impaired Kids

  • Speak less and demonstrate more.

  • Always stay in their line of sight so they can read your lips or follow your body.

  • If you know sign language—amazing! Use it!


♿ For Children in Wheelchairs

Try chair yoga or, if safe, help them gently out of the chair for floor poses (look after your own back too!).

 

🛏️ For Kids Who Are Bedridden

  • Focus on breathing exercises, guided imagery, and massage.

  • Even just holding their hand is a powerful form of connection and yoga.

🌟 No matter the circumstance—there’s always a way to practise yoga.

 

🧠 Yoga for Neurodiverse Kids & Cognitive Differences

There’s a wide range of additional needs that can include:

  • Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC)

  • Down Syndrome

  • Developmental Delays

  • Brain Injuries

  • Genetic Syndromes

  • And so many unique neurodiverse profiles

You might teach these beautiful souls in two main settings:

👥 1. A Child with Additional Needs in a Mainstream Class

  • They’ll need one-on-one support—an adult practising alongside them always.

  • Things move fast in regular classes, so they’ll need more time and guidance.

  • They may have low body awareness, delayed imitation skills, and need more help navigating space.

  • Often there will be a support person (teacher’s aide, parent, or “shadow”) already assigned.

🧘♀️ 2. A Dedicated Class for Kids with Additional Needs

  • Keep it small: Max 6–8 kids per class, with 1 teacher per 2–3 kids.

  • Adjust class plans to match their developmental stage, not just age.

  • Example: For 5–6-year-olds with developmental delays, use a class plan for 3–4-year-olds.

  • Make it slower-paced but just as fun!

  • Kids on the autism spectrum may experience sensory overload. Lower the music, slow the transitions, and observe their responses.

🌟 Four Essential Elements for Teaching Kids with Additional Needs

1. Touch

  • Use frequent, firm, grounding touch.

  • Most children with autism love touch—but always be sensitive to individual preferences.

  • Gentle physical contact helps with orientation and emotional regulation.

2. Hands-On Support

  • Many of these children have low muscle tone—move limbs slowly and gently to avoid injury.

  • Others have high tone, meaning stiff, tight muscles—yoga and massage will be incredibly helpful

  • Guide their bodies into poses and let their muscles respond in their own time.

3. Sound

  • Use fun sound effects, animal noises, and vocal play like Om and Hummm.

  • Less talking, more singing and demonstrating!

  • Sound is a beautiful tool for connection and emotional expression.

4. Breath

  • Teach them how to breathe deeply.

  • Use playful breathing exercises to help them become aware of their body and calm their nervous system.

🌱 Start with their strengths, not their weaknesses. Success builds confidence, and confidence opens the door to growth.

 

Through Yoga, They Can Develop…

  • Better body awareness and control

  • A deeper connection to others and the world around them

  • Higher self-confidence and self-esteem

  • A profound sense of relaxation and peace

A Few More Important Tips


Come with joy, not pity!

Children with Additional Needs are kids first and foremost. They want to have fun, play, laugh, and feel loved. Don’t walk into class with a heavy heart or an air of “helping the unfortunate”—walk in ready to celebrate who they are!

Do Your Research

When you know you’ll have a child with a specific condition, look it up. Learn what might help you support them better:

  • How to adapt poses

  • How to adjust your communication style

What pacing works best

Then, when the class begins, let all that go—and meet the child in front of you. Your research is there in the background as a guide, but your heart is in the present moment with them.

Final Thought

Whether it’s yoga for kids with autism, yoga for children with disabilities, or inclusive yoga classes for everyone—Rainbow Yoga is about love, presence, and connection.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach in life… so why should there be in yoga?

Let’s make yoga a practice where everybody is welcome. Every body, every mind, every heart.

 

Υποβάλετε ένα σχόλιο

MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE WITH YOGA AND MINDFULNESS

Rainbow Yoga trained more than 30,000 Kids Yoga Teachers since 2007. We make yoga fun for children and young people of all age groups and for the whole family too! Our yoga consists of many poses and stretches that have different physical benefits for our health and well-being, breathing, relaxation, meditation and mindfulness exercises for our minds, and social interaction, playfulness, meaning, deep life lessons and fun for our spirit.

Thinking about the impact of all those amazing certified yoga teachers, educators, parents and therapists we have trained to teach yoga to children and yoga for teens; we are making a huge difference for the next generation bringing peace, love, kindness and resilience into their lives. Education departments, schools, health programs and individuals in many countries have adopted yoga as a form of exercise and a method to decrees stress and increase wellbeing. We are the biggest and most-loved kid’s yoga teacher training in the world and we are here tp provide you with everything you will need to teach successful, exciting, meaningful, engaging and fun yoga to children, teenagers and families.

THE BEST ONLINE YOGA TEACHER TRAINING – LEARN TOOLS TO HELP KIDS AND FAMILIES FIND CONNECTION, RELEASE STRESS, INCREASE RESILIENCE AND BRING ON A SENSE OF WELL BEING AND MENTAL BALANCE

Rainbow Kids Yoga offers the most comprehensive, practical, and engaging children yoga teacher training certification in the world! Our course will enable you to deliver children yoga classes that will connects your students to themselves, each other, and the environment. Through unique and engaging practices of mindfulness and yoga your students and community will be able to find connections, enhance well-being and thrive as grounded, integrated and well balanced individuals.

At our training, all while having fun, you will become a children yoga instructor through a lot of experiential practice, insightful theory, yoga poses and sequences, mindfulness practices and relaxation. You will learn how to build fun, engaging, and fitness-level-appropriate children yoga classes for all ages, from toddlers to teenagers. At our kid’s yoga teacher training you will find over 300 videos presenting how to make yoga poses accessible and fun! Believe it or not, yoga can be extremely boring for children and for adults too… In Rainbow Yoga, we make yoga in a fun so that children learn easily and want to do more of it. Yoga is so good for you, but for children to want to want to do yoga you will need to learn to spice it all up and this is what our kid’s yoga online teacher training is for!

This is the perfect resource for yoga teachers, parents, educators and therapists to find and discover hundreds of yoga poses, yoga games and mindfulness practices for children in a way that makes it is easy to learn and easy to enjoy.

Yoga poses for kids: Yoga encourages a positive and healthy lifestyle for the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of children as it helps in the development of strength, stamina, and endurance, high levels of positive energy, resilience, focus, self-awareness, and awareness of our environment.

Yoga for children empowers them with increased concentration, calm, peace, and contentment at a mental level leading to inner and outer peace and harmony. The Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training includes a digital manual (a hard copy that can be purchased) as part of the course. This is specialized online yoga teacher training. Here we will focus on how to teach yoga to children and teens, and how to help them release stress, relax, stretch, energize – All in creative and fun ways while taking into consideration their unique needs, whether they are physical, social, mental, or emotional. 

You will learn to teach the youngest yogis and those with emotional and mental challenges techniques to assist them with impulse control and self-regulation. Our courses provide a platform and a foundation to promote the healthy development of the hearts, bodies, and minds of young individuals.

The Rainbow Kids Yoga Training is the largest and most well-regarded Kids Yoga Teacher Training in the world. Our graduates teach everywhere using our diploma including schools, kindergartens, daycare centers, early learning centers, Yoga studios, gyms, fitness centers, birthday parties, private and group classes and more.

 

AFFORDABLE LEARNING AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Join our Yoga Revolution and become a kids’ yoga teacher today through our online yoga teacher training or in-person yoga certification courses. You will be left with a smile on your face, a wealth of knowledge and an ignited spirit to spread the love and joy of yoga.

For our online training, you can allow 24 hours to receive your access and for physical products such as the Rainbow Kids Yoga Book, you can allow 2-4 weeks to receive it by mail. The books are printed on demand before being shipped, but it is worth the wait 😊

HISTORY OF RAINBOW YOGA

Rainbow Yoga is a fun and constantly evolving family mission and lovingly born in 2007, to give people the tools to teach fun, engaging, and creative in=person and online yoga classes for kids, teens, families, partners, and communities. Rainbow Yoga is interactive and social and all about connection; we touch, hug, move, breathe and co-create together our yoga magically and playfully.

Rainbow Yoga offers a variety of unique and comprehensive teacher training certification courses all over the world offering a well-rounded, in-depth learning experience through a combination of play, practical theory, and fun.The Rainbow Yoga Teacher training is renowned for being captivating, dynamic, loving, and life changing. It is condensed with a lifetime of knowledge and hands-on experience from the Founders of Rainbow Yoga, Gopala, and Angel Yaffa. Delivered by world-class faculty around the world.