Yoga is SO important for toddlers and preschoolers. Most people know yoga is great for relaxation and emotional regulation, but they might not know that it is also crucial for brain growth. That’s right: Yoga will help your child learn to speak, read and write.
Brain cells, neurons, do not form neural pathways until exposed to environmental stimuli that our senses transmit to our brains. Each experience – listening to a story, smelling a rose, eating a piece of candy – stimulates brain cells to send out dendrites to join up other with brain cells to create neural networks (bridges, pathways, whatever you want to call them) through which information can be exchanged.
I could talk about neuroscience for days, it’s one of my favorite things to study, but suffice it to say for now that the more your child experiences, the more neural pathways there will be in her brain, and they will be strengthened and reinforced through continual stimulation and the greater the capacity for knowledge acquisition and retention. For the rest of their lives.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that children need more positive than negative experiences. Positive experiences grow neural bridges while negative ones can delete, shrink or warp them.
The last 10 years of neuroscience research has shown us that the brain is plastic, meaning anyone can change and grow their brain at anytime. But, oh, those early years. You will never see such growth and plasticity as you do in the first seven years of life, and particularly years 0-3.
So how does yoga come into play by building the brain and making your kid smarter? In two ways.
The first is the traditional way in which most people understand about yoga. Yoga turns on the parasympathetic nervous system. A quick way to remember what the parasympathetic system does is to remember two words: rest and digest. It’s what helps you digest your food, go to sleep, helps make you calm, rational choices and actions, and allows your pre-frontal cortex (our “new” brain) to be in charge. Little kids act like caveman maniacs and teenagers make such poor rational choices because their prefrontal cortex is still forming until age 25! Add stress into the mix, and boom! All calm, rational thought goes right out the window.
The sympathetic nervous system is your old brain – fight, flight or freeze. This is the part of your brain that is concerned with survival: Eat, mate, survive and repeat. That’s all it cares about. Any time you are stressed, your body is operating from that caveman brain and your whole body system is only concerned with the thought,Who or what is trying to kill me and should I fight it, run from it or play dead to hope for the best? When you operate in survival mode, your neurons are not making connections and neural pathways because your brain is too busy trying to keep you alive.
Not only do young children have underdeveloped pre-frontal cortexes, they get stressed just like adults.They need security and routine and loving care, and need to be taught how to relax and regulate their emotions so they can be happier and more peaceful. When they can give their brains time and space to learn and grow,they can reach their full potential.
Second, yoga is at its simplest, is movement linked to breath. Movement taps into the sensory-motor system and the brain makes connections. If there is one thing I have learned from Penelope’s Sensory Processing Disorder, it’s that the mind-body connection is real. If you are talking to a child, trying to teach them manners or their ABCs and there is no movement going along with the learning or very soon after, there is a good chance nothing will be retained. You can yap yap yap all day long and it’s like Charlie Brown’s teacher, the wha wha wha wha trombone sound will be all the kid hears. Children’s brains are not going to make connections that allow them to remember what they’ve learned unless there is movement happening as well. That’s why playground time is SO important.
In a perfect world, we would teach then move, teach then move, teach then move. Teach them math then it’s time for PE. Language Arts then playground. Science lecture then….yoga! In a perfect world, right?
Mind then body. Mind then body. Mind then body.
All day long.
The other HUGE benefit of yoga with toddlers and preschoolers is that it builds their self esteem. Yoga is art. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be absolutely perfect. It may be the only physical activity they try that they get it “right” because no matter what their body does, no matter what their gross motor skills are, no matter what their body awareness levels are, the child gets the authentic internal praise”I did it!!!!” and external praise from a loved one who witnesses and says, “I see you! You did it!!!”
And lastly, it is amazing for bonding. A good relationship with a child, above all else should be the priority, of every parent and teacher. I am not a fan parents and teachers allowing permissiveness, or even extreme attachment parenting, in an attempt to not hurt a relationship, but I am a fan of building a solid, tight and deeply connected relationship BEFORE firm and fair discipline and hard lines are drawn. And yoga is a great way to do that. Lots of praise, lots of quality attention, lots of eye contact, and lots of loving touch are all the ingredients for a deep and loving connection with a child.
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