Can Children Build Focus With Yoga?
As a children’s yoga teacher, and experienced classroom teacher, a question I am often asked is how can I help my child focus? What can I do to help them build their attention span? The answer isn’t an obvious one. Where many of us know where to start to help our children learn to read or memorise their times tables, developing focus is much harder. Yoga is a fantastic way to help children, from pre-schoolers all the way to teens, build their focus. Yoga requires a lot of concentration, from physically balancing and coordinating our bodies, to keeping attention on the breath and syncing our movements with its rhythms and perhaps most importantly – its lots of fun!
You are probably aware of how powerful the breath can be at regulating our emotions. Our breath is often our bodies’ first response – step on that annoying piece of lego left on the floor and the first thing you do is take a sharp inhale. Spend half an hour resting in a sound bath and your breath will have almost certainly become slow, deep and even, whether you were focusing on it or not. Demonstrating, and sharing, breath control with our little ones is a fantastic way to help them find focus. Humming bee breath is one of my favourites here – inhale deeply through the nose and let the breath out with a humming sound, try to keep the sound going for as long is comfortable and enjoy the vibration it creates. Another great breath when you want to help a child to focus is the woodchopper breath. It’s really energising and simple to do. Simply inhale through the nose while lifting the arm in a karate chop position, and let the breath out while chopping down the arm with a “Ha” sound.
Balancing poses are also a great way to help children to build focus. Try some simple, but child friendly, balances such as tree pose, eagle and warrior three to challenge your child’s balance. If they say they’re too easy challenge them to close their eyes!
Tree Pose (Vrikshasana)
Find tree pose by beginning standing up tall in mountain pose at the front of your mat. Draw your knee up in front of you and then turn it out to the side. Place the foot either with tiptoes on the floor, against the calf or up against the thigh (avoid pressing the foot into the knee). Keep hands in prayer pose or raise them high above your head for more challenge. To help you balance focus on a still point at the line of the horizon. Try on both legs and notice if there’s a difference in balance from one side to the other.
Eagle Pose (Garudasana)
This pose takes the challenge up a notch – from mountain pose bend both knees, lift your right foot, and slowly wrap your right thigh over your left. Then curl your right foot behind your left calf, and hook it there. If you can’t reach this far or find the balance challenging allow you toes to find the floor. Reach both arms out in front of you and wrap your left arm over your right, crossing the left elbow over the right upper arm. Slide your right hand toward your face, cross your forearms, and try to press your palms together, raising your elbows in front of you. Be sure to try on both sides and notice any differences.
Warrior 3 pose (Virabhadrasana 3)
This is a fantastic pose which requires a lot of focus! From a lunge position bring the weight into the front leg and lift up into Warrior III by extending the back leg behind and flexing the foot while reaching ahead with the arms. Reach through the arms and extend back with your leg trying to keep the body in a straight line. If you wobble, don’t feel judgement, simply move back into the pose gently. Try focus on a still point at the line of the horizon to help you balance. See how quietly you can place down the back foot.
Also challenging children to learn safe flows such as the classical sun salutation can really focus them – as well as building lots of strength in their body! You can find videos to follow along or even find songs which instruct children through sun salutations.
In my experience, there is no overnight fix for a short attention span. It is a skill to be developed and cultivated throughout our lives. When given the opportunity to practise yoga and breath work regularly children often report feeling more focused, and schools have even seen improved academic outcomes when yoga has been included in their curriculums. Getting good sleep (another thing yoga can help with), eating nutritiously and trying to avoid screens (at least trying to avoid watching multiple screens at once – think social media while watching television) are other ways to help build focus.
Inspired to try introducing your child to yoga in a more structured way? My 6 week children’s yoga course - The Find Your Focus Series - has everything you need to get going:
2 classes a week (lasting 15-25 mins)
a printable journal of
focus building activities
Focus Finder 5s (quick techniques to help your child find their focus anywhere, any time)
Coaching videos for you to help you maximise your child’s success!
This is what parents are saying about the series:
“Each week Willow develops her understanding, learns new postures and is so much calmer and in touch with her emotions an body as a result”.
“He now asks me to do yoga all the time. It’s become our little ritual before bed”
“My four year old is loving it. The two year olds likes to join in. It’s cute.”