Living in a city like Chicago, cold, snowy days are a frequent reality. Keeping your children entertained and engaged with meaningful activities on non-school days can be a big challenge, especially for children with autism, ADHD, or sensory conditions that make it difficult for them to adjust to a change in their routine. Hopefully, the following arctic animal themed ideas spread some fun and entertainment to you and your family on Chicago’s wintry days!  

Arctic Animal Yoga Poses  

• Polar Bear Pose: Walk on your hands and feet – Add a ROAR!!   
• Husky Pose (Down Dog): Place your hands and feet on the floor, make an upside-down V with your body. 
• Moose Pose (Tree Pose): Stand tall on both feet and reach your arms high!  
• Walrus (Cobra): Lay on your stomach with your legs flat, push your arms along under your shoulders.   
• Snow Goose Pose (Dancers Pose): Stand on your right leg, bend your right knee, and hold your right foot with your right hand (also try the other side!)  
• Snowy Owl (Airplane): Stand tall on both legs, spread your arms out wide. 

Use Blocks to Build an Igloo  

If you can go outside and play in the snow, use rubber or plastic bins to pack snow and make “blocks” to build a real Igloo! 

Fake Snow Exploration 

Follow any of the recipes below to make fake snow. Place the fake snow in a sensory bin with a small manipulative and let your kids explore! 

Recipe One  

• Add 1 cup baking soda to a mixing bowl  
• Slowly mix in 1 TBS of water at a time 
• Continue to add water until you have made snow!  

Recipe Two  

• Coarse Sea Salt (EASY PEASY!)  

Recipe Three  

• Get 5-10 sheets of damp paper towels  
• Mix paper in food processor  

Recipe Four  

• Mix ½ cup white conditioner with 2 cups baking soda  

Polar Bear Art Idea  

Materials: Glue, white paper, cotton balls, blue paint, paint brush (or little fingers!)  

1. Outline a polar bear on a piece of white paper. You can use a pencil and have your child trace. This will work on writing skills! 
2. Paint the background blue. Your child can work on gripping a paintbrush, or textile sensitivities with finger paint! 
3. Glue cotton balls inside the polar bear outline. To work on fine motor skills, pull apart the cotton balls!  

Obstacle Course 

Use random furniture and toys from around the house to make a quick obstacle course that can keep kids entertained for hours! 

Please feel free to ask your child’s Blue Bird Day therapists for more therapeutic activities to keep your child both entertained and building skills during snow days. 

Yoga has several well-known benefits, including relaxation, strengthening, balance, and motor coordination. There are also many researched benefits of yoga as an intervention to address typical gross motor challenges for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which typically include limited postural stability, limited motor control, balance deficits, gait abnormalities, and decreased bilateral coordination. 

Below, we have outlined several physical therapy goals that can be addressed through yoga: 

Strengthening

Yoga is a great tool for global strengthening, as it requires you to maintain anti-gravity positions for a prolonged duration. By holding static poses, you are targeting isometric strength, which is required for functional activities requiring static control. Decreased core strength is commonly seen in children with ASD, which affects their ability to sit upright throughout the school day. By engaging in a regular yoga routine, children will target the postural stability muscles required to maintain upright sitting, which will assist them in engaging in academic learning activities.  

Recommended pose: Plank or down dog 

Plank or down dog requires your child to maintain an anti-gravity weight bearing position, which promotes global upper extremity and core strengthening and stability.  

Balance

Yoga incorporates several poses requiring your child to maintain a static pose for sustained duration while maintaining a narrow base of support. Yoga also addresses dynamic balance, as it requires you to flow and transition between various poses, while maintaining stability through your upper and lower extremities. By practicing poses requiring static and dynamic balance, your child will be able to transfer these skills to functional activities of daily living, including dressing, stairs, gait, and stepping over obstacles.  

Recommended pose: Tree pose 

Tree pose involves standing on one foot while maintaining hands together at midline or stretched over head.  

Motor Control

Yoga incorporates a variety of poses, flowing in sequence from one to the next. Yoga also incorporates several multi-step poses, which will allow your child to develop body awareness and motor control while flowing throughout their sequence. Children with ASD typically present with rigid or “clumsy” movements and require increased time for motor planning. By practicing multi-step motor sequences, your child will be able to develop motor control, bilateral coordination, and fluid transitions.  

Recommended pose: Vinyasa 

Flowing between a sequence of postures, flowing from one to the next.  

Example: Mountain > forward fold > plank > upward dog > downward dog 

Relaxation and Body Awareness  

Limited body awareness is a common challenge for children with ASD, which directly affects their ability to engage appropriately in gross motor activities. Yoga can be used as a tool to bring awareness to your body through relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing.  

Recommended pose: Shavasana/Corpse Pose 

Lay on your back with your hands on your stomach. Bring awareness to your breath while feeling your belly rise and fall with each inhalation and exhalation. 

 Try it at Home! 

There are several ways you can incorporate a yoga routine at home with your child. Yoga is a great way for you and your child to promote a healthy lifestyle while working towards your child’s physical therapy goals. A few options are listed below: 

• Yoga Pretzels (Yoga cards) 
• Super Stretch App 
• Youtube/On Demand 

Resources: 

Radhakrishna, S., Nagarathna, R., & Nagendra, H. R. (2010). Integrated approach to yoga therapy and autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Ayurveda and integrative medicine, 1(2), 120-4. 

Memari, A. H., Ghanouni, P., Shayestehfar, M., & Ghaheri, B. (2014). Postural control impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: a critical review of current literature. Asian journal of sports medicine, 5(3), e22963. 

Ament, K., Mejia, A., Buhlman, R., Erklin, S., Caffo, B., Mostofsky, S., & Wodka, E. (2015). Evidence for specificity of motor impairments in catching and balance in children with autism. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(3), 742-51.

With spring rising from the cold, there comes a feeling of rebirth and readiness for something new. Our little blue birds are shaking away the cold by raising their arms high into the air and moving their bodies into new shapes and poses through yoga. This blog talks about the benefits of yoga for children and gives ideas to help your family try it out at home. Yoga has a rich spiritual history seeking to connect the mind and the body. These poses — originating in India — are utilized to help people strengthen and stretch their bodies, as well as focus their attention and quiet their minds.

Yoga has become popular with adults and children alike. Kids with different abilities are no different. Studies show that yoga is a great tool to improve motor coordination, self-regulation, imitation skills, and self-awareness. These are all necessary skills to help kids participate on the playground and with peers. [Please see a few research articles below if you are interested.]

Yoga does not have to be something just practiced at school. It is a great opportunity for you and your child to grow your bodies and minds, as well as your relationship. Taking a few minutes out of the day to do one pose together, or to practice breathing techniques, is a great way to support your child and your health. Here are some suggestions and resources to help your family grow into the practice of yoga.

1. Start small. All kids and adults have a variety of skills and interests. Acknowledge that it may take time to learn poses and that everyone has different interests that support their learning. A first step could be looking at/reading a kid’s yoga book, taking big breaths, watching a yoga video, or having your kids just see you in a pose. If you are unsure, look online, ask a yoga instructor, or ask your occupational or physical therapist where you should start with your child.
2. Resources. There are so many kid-friendly apps, books, videos, and blogs. Feel free to check them all out. Here are a few that I’ve used. Figure out what interests your child the most and what fits best for your lifestyle. There are a ton of resources online.
   Books – Good Morning Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Wake Up Story by Mariam Gates, You are a Lion by Taeeun Yoo
   Apps – Super Stretch Yoga (free)
   Videos – Cosmic Kids Yoga (YouTube channel with engaging and fun stories, including frozen, dinosaurs, and mermaids around yoga; some of the poses may be better suited for older kids)
3. Slow and Steady. If you get to the point of assuming positions: Great! See how long you both can hold them. Wait to add in more poses until your child really has it, then add new poses in slowly.
4. Celebrate. Once you get that pose or even attempt a new pose: celebrate. Take the time to celebrate you and your child’s body and mind power. Take a picture of your pose. Smile. Play a favorite song. Offer big hugs. Tickles. Say “Wow your body makes all kinds of cool shapes” or “I love the way you did that pose.” Do something that your child finds fun to celebrate your child’s achievement; not only to help their yoga and coordination, but also their mind and self-esteem.

Have fun growing together this spring and reach out to your team for more activities to help your children grow!

Research Resources
Radhakrishna, S., Nagarathna, R., & Nagendra, H. R. (2010). Integrated approach to yoga therapy and autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Ayurveda and integrative medicine, 1(2), 120-4.
Koenig KP, Buckley-Reen A, Garg S. Efficacy of the Get Ready to Learn yoga program among children with autism spectrum disorders: A pretest-posttest control group design. Am J Occup Ther. 2012;66:538–46.
Galantino ML, Galbavy R, Quinn L. Therapeutic effects of yoga for children: a systematic review of the literature. Pediatric Physcal Therapy. 2008;20(1):66-80,