Starfish Therapies

A pediatric therapy company operating in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. We provide physical, occupational, speech and aquatic therapy services in the most beneficial and convenient setting for you and your child, including our clinic, currently located in Burlingame, your home, school or daycare.

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Yoga for Kids

July 16, 2017 by Stacy Menz

 

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If you were to ever come to one of our kids yoga classes, don’t expect it to be the same as the yoga class you go to. In fact, I was sitting in our office one day while yoga was happening and all of a sudden I hear ‘Green Light, Red Light.’ I look at one of my co-workers and ask ‘since when does yoga involve red light, green light?’

This is a class for kids of all abilities and ages and we have had just that. We’ve had a 13 month old up to a 12 year old. There have been kids who are typically developing and we’ve had kids in wheelchairs due to cerebral palsy, kids with Down Syndrome, kids with autism, and many more. Its fun to watch them all interact and learn the poses.

So here are some of the ways we get the kids to engage in yoga:

  • Red Light, Green Light – Everytime red light is called, the kids have to do a pose. Sometimes they get to choose, sometimes its called out to them.
  • Twister – While not traditional yoga poses, by playing the game the kiddos get to put their bodies into different positions and hold the poses. It helps with their body awareness, balance, strength, and coordination, to name a few.
  • Alphabet Yoga – We found a handout from youngyogamasters.com that has alphabet yoga poses. The kids take turns picking words to spell (generally they like to spell their names) and they go through the poses!
  • Freeze dance Yoga – We play some music to let them get their wiggles out and then stop the music and yell ‘Freeze’ and then pick a pose for them to do. And then they get to dance again until the next freeze!
  • Birthday Cake Breathing – We have the Melissa and Doug birthday cake and we use it to practice deep breathing with the kids as they blow out the candles. We have also used it to pretend its a different animals birthday and do the animal poses for their birthday!

We have also used ideas from the Yoga Cards from Your Therapy Source!

What are some of the ways you have incorporated yoga for kids?

Related

Filed Under: Developmental Milestones Tagged With: balance, coordination, gross motor development, Motor Smart Kids, physical therapy, play, yoga

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What Clients Are Saying

Our family moved to the bay area 6 years ago, and Starfish Therapies have been a part of our family ever since. Everyone at the clinic is caring and warm. The owner always looks for ways to improve the clinic and the services provided. The therapists are patient, enthusiastic, and know how to motivate the kids to do their best. Even after moving more than an hour away from the clinic, we kept going back to Starfish for intensive therapy sessions every summer! We cannot thank Starfish Therapies enough for helping my daughter to get stronger and to become more independent over the years!”

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Locations

  BURLINGAME / MAIN CLINIC
  1541 Old Bayshore Highway
  Burlingame, CA 94010


  SAN FRANCISCO
  (located in KidSpace)
  3401 Mission St.
  San Francisco, CA 94110


  PALO ALTO
  (located in Agile Physical Therapy)
  3825 El Camino Real
  Palo Alto, CA 94306


HALF MOON BAY
  (located at Sensitive Solutions)
  30 Avenue Portola, Suite 200 C & D
  Half Moon Bay, CA 94018

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