New After-School Addition: Children’s Yoga
The day after we announced the addition of Yoga to our after-school programs, we read in the Bergen Record about “Yoga for kids in North Jersey”
(Our menu of after-school instructional programs includes: Piano, Violin, Chess and Yoga.)
The article summarized some interesting studies:
* In a survey from 2004 to 2007 at a Boulder, Colo., school, 4th- and 5th-grade students reported fewer instances of bullying after two weeks of yoga instruction. After the yoga classes, students said incidents of being hit by a classmate dropped 55 percent. The students also reported a 57 percent increase in the ability to control their own anger.
* The journal School Psychology Review published an article in 2005 that found that a group of students with attention problems were able to focus more on their work after yoga instruction. Before yoga, the problem students were able to stay “on task” only 65 percent of the time, compared with their peers who could focus for 85 percent of the time. During the yoga instruction, the problem students were able to focus as much as their typical peers.
* A 1991 article in the Journal of Asthma found that yoga training was helpful in treating children with asthma, increasing pulmonary function and exercise capacity. A follow-up study two years later found that benefits remained, with the children having fewer symptoms and requiring less medication.