There are no “bad” kids.
Some kids find doing what’s expected in school, getting along with others, and making friends fairly easy, while others struggle with these skills. Often, the kids who are adept at these things are thought of as “good kids,” and the others can be seen as problems to be solved or obstacles in the way of everyone else’s learning. More and more, however, parents and educators are talking about helping kids build executive function skills and the capacity for self-regulation—the basic tools everyone needs to get along and set and achieve goals for a fulfilling life.
Children who are struggling with these capacities often look like children who just aren’t paying attention or children who are deliberately not controlling themselves. —Deborah A. Phillips, PhD, Dept. of Psychology and Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University
We can teach executive function and self-regulation.
The realization that we can educate children to self regulate is a critical one. The ability to build the skills that we test for in schools—language, math, and science—as well as the ability to build meaningful and successful lives rests on healthy executive function and self-regulation. If we hope to narrow achievement gaps and promote equality in schools (and in the larger world), we must help all kids develop these fundamental capacities.
If you don’t have self-regulation, then you act out and the teacher puts you in time out, and so then you miss part of the learning that’s going on, and then you are more upset because you’re behind, and so you act out, and so you get this downward spiral. —Deborah J. Leong, PhD
There are a number of ways we can support executive function, which includes skills like self-control, working memory, self-reflection, organization, and planning. Parents and teachers can target these skills individually with strategies like asking kids to count to five before asking or responding to a question, using memory games, and introducing organizational tools. Research indicates, however, that combining physical exercise with mindfulness through activities like yoga or martial arts may be more effective than narrowly focusing on individual skills for building executive function.
Yoga practice can help strengthen executive function.
Executive function begins developing its roots in infancy, growing dramatically throughout the first few years and continuing to improve throughout adolescence until a strong neural network can develop in adulthood. Researchers believe these capacities can be trained, much like physical strength, agility, and flexibility can be trained by going to the gym. Yoga gives the opportunity to practice multiple skills that strengthen executive function, including mindfulness, self-reflection, visualization, and empathy, while also enhancing oxygen to the brain through deep breathing.
Child-centered yoga builds physical, mental, and emotional strength.
Yoga programs like Imagination Yoga are designed specifically for children. They use poses that are appropriate for kids’ developing bodies and can gently guide them through yoga flows with engaging stories that encourage visualization. The Imagination Yoga curriculum teaches that practicing kindness—to ourselves as well as to those around us—is one of our most important tasks as human beings and that kindness often requires courage. This might be the courage to tell someone to stop when they’re causing someone else pain, the courage to say “no” when our boundaries are being violated, or the courage to admit when we’re wrong and apologize. It might also be the courage to vocalize kind thoughts like, “I really admire the way you solved that problem” or simply, “I appreciate you.”
Kids aren’t good or bad. They are newly arrived human beings who need those of us who have been around a while to help them navigate this world so they can each shine their own unique light into it. Engaging them in age-appropriate yoga practice plants a seed that can grow into a lifetime of physical, emotional, and psychological health, empowering them to be their best, most effective selves.
If you’re interested in children’s yoga classes for your family, school, or care facility around Eugene, Oregon, use the contact form at the link at the top of the page to request a free demo class and decide if our program is a good fit.
Reources
Diamond and Lee. “Interventions shown to Aid Executive Function Development in Children 4–12 Years Old.” Science. 23 Aug 2011. Accessed 22 Dec 2017.
“Executive Function and Self Regulation.” developingchild.harvard.edu. Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, 18 June 2012. Accessed 22 Dec 2017.