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Touched by an angel: Mother turns to yoga to strengthen child with special needs

Featured Articles Inspiration

One child’s yogic path with Sonia Sumar’s “Yoga for the Special Child”

By Kimberlee Ovnik

kenny1My two-year-old angel, Kenny, was born with Down syndrome. Yoga transformed his life and supported his development, just as it had helped me through my diagnosis with rheumatoid arthritis and a divorce 10 years ago. I had healed drug-free through yoga, and wanted to offer the same healthful environment to my son.

Throughout my pregnancy, I did yoga. I loved being pregnant. It was effortless—even at 45. I worked as a hair stylist until I was nine-and-a-half months along. I was so grateful. Although my doctors tried to scare me about my age, I found confidence through my meditations that my son would be born healthy.

On June 30, 2011, Kenny was born as a healthy boy, who happened to have an extra chromosome. The doctors told my husband and me that Kenny has Down syndrome. With a bit of shock and an overload of love, we began our journey.

Each morning of my pregnancy, I had meditated with clarity and focus and followed an uplifting prenatal yoga practice. How could that peace and joy benefit Kenny’s development and our journey? I needed a balance—something that I always strive for and yoga unfailingly provides.

Yoga for the Special ChildBombarded with opinions and directions, we were overwhelmed and didn’t know our next step. With the outpouring of advice, our confusion escalated until someone recommended Sonia Sumar’s “Yoga for the Special Child: A Therapeutic Approach for Infants and Children with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and Learning Disabilities.”

Our lives changed. Published in 2007, Sumar’s exquisite book tells her journey with her daughter, who was born with Down syndrome, and the program she created for her daughter to teach yoga to children with special needs. The Sonia Sumar Method has been our life preserver, calming the waters of our chaos and allowing us to focus on the enormous blessing of our son.

Yoga has deepened our mother-son bond and advanced Kenny’s development, courage, confidence, connection to himself, and awareness of his body and his environment. Kenny shines undaunted and with an unlimited spirit.

The first developmental therapist, Christie, who assessed Kenny when he was four months old, happened to be leaving the next day for New York to be certified by Sumar in “Yoga for the Special Child.” Instead of pursuing developmental therapy with Kenny upon her return from New York, Christie started him on yoga. Kenny took to it immediately. My baby’s chants of “om” marking the beginning and end of their practice touched me deeply and brought hope and clarity to our journey.

When Kenny was seven months old, we traveled to Sarasota, FL, so I too could become certified in Sumar’s “Yoga for the Special Child.” My instinct  told me this was the answer for Kenny and his development.

Yoga’s ability to grow one’s state of presence is important for children, especially those with special needs. Having and teaching presence of mind is a gift that allows you to celebrate the tiniest things on a daily basis. It was thrilling to watch Kenny push to cobra pose for the first time, lift into bridge pose or do any asana. Each time, his sense of self and connection to self continues to grow.

When you are teaching “Yoga for the Special Child,” you must be completely focused and open. As Sumar says, “This is a soul-to-soul connection.” In turn, trust and love is nurtured. With this, all is possible.

For instance, shallow breathing in a child may be caused by fear, digestive issues, anxiety, or even bad posture. Simply increasing the depth of a child’s breath in turn helps all systems. The increase of prana in anyone’s body is beneficial on all levels.

Yoga gave me the confidence to move Kenny’s body and separate from the fear of not knowing.

kenny2Kenny, like many children born with Down syndrome, has “low tone.” Weight-bearing work, as in yoga, is imperative. Kids with DS also are prone to ear infections. Their ear canals can be hourglass-shaped and small, and hence tend to pool mucus easily. After months of headstand prep, Kenny did a gentle inversion, which allowed his ears to drain. Kenny never had an ear infection. His doctor was amazed by Kenny’s unusually clear ears. My angel found his yoga practice very relaxing and usually would fall asleep in Savasana.

Kenny’s occupational therapist, Molly, also took Sonia’s certification and said the course has been very helpful for her work with my son. For example, Kenny is extremely flexible, but it helps him become stronger if he holds poses at approximately half of how much he can usually stretch. This requires more work on his part because if he were to stretch through his full range of motion in his hips for example, he can usually put his arms or head down to rest on the ground. Poses such as head-to-knee and yogic sleep have helped strengthen Kenny’s core, and practicing downward dog has helped immensely with his ability to stand up from sitting.

Now age 2, Kenny is thriving. Every day, someone comments on my son’s erect posture, his easy joy and buoyant spirit. These gifts were nurtured through our diligent yoga practice and guided by The Sonia Sumar Method. I am so grateful.

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Tags: cerebral palsyDown syndromeKennyKimberlee Ovniklearning disabilitiesSonia Sumarspecial needsThe Sonia Sumar MethodYogaYoga for the Special Child

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