Friday Q&A: Autism and Yoga

Hidden Flower by Brad Gibson

Q: I am a Yoga therapist in Minnesota. A family member has been given a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder. I found very little on the IAYT publications and I also found little references on your blog for this problem. She is a 14-year-old girl who is very gifted with eye-hand coordination and physical activities, so I have few worries about doing postures and easy pranayama.

But before I design a practice regimen for her, I am wondering if any of your professionals have any advice or can blog as to contra-indications and concerns as I found not much reference to these on any of the established yoga sources I currently have access to?

A: This is a topic we have not previously addressed here at YFHA, and as for my practice, I have not worked with any individuals with this diagnosis, and I am not aware of any incidence of my fellow writers at YFHA working with this either. However, it would still be worth defining what this condition is and taking a look to see if there is any information about using yoga as a tool for improving the function and quality of life for those affected. The NIH website defines autism as follows:

“Autism is a group of developmental brain disorders, collectively called autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The term "spectrum" refers to the wide range of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment, or disability, that children with ASD can have. Some children are mildly impaired by their symptoms, but others are severely disabled.
 
Five disorders, sometimes called pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs), [make up] ASD:
 
•    Autistic disorder (classic autism)
•    Asperger's disorder (Asperger syndrome)
•    Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)
•    Rett's disorder (Rett syndrome)
•    Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD)."

I won’t go into details about the differences between the five disorders, but this link to the NIH site  will allow you to learn more if it is of interest to you. At this time, scientists don't know the exact causes of autism. The research to date suggests that both genes and environment play important roles in the development of autism.

As I was thinking about considering working with a student with autism, the various kinds of symptoms these students have could help or hinder a teacher’s attempts. The symptoms of autism can vary from one child to the next, but there are 3 general categories that symptoms fall into:

• social impairment
• communication difficulties
• repetitive and stereotyped behaviors.

Any of these could present real challenges for the uninitiated yoga instructor.  For example, regarding “social impairment” and how this could affect trying to teach yoga to someone with autism, ASD suffers tend to look and listen less to people, leading to a failure to respond to other people. This could call for some very creative approaches to teaching! To see all that the NIH has to say about ASD, see here.

In addition to finding good resources for better understanding autism, I also came across at least two studies that have been done on yoga and autism. One study done in 2012 showed that yoga helped improve school performance and sustained attention in children with autism. Another study done in 2011 showed that yoga relaxation, dance and music therapy helped treat behavioral problems and other autism symptoms. I also came across a 2010 abstract from an ayurveda journal that indicated the positive potential for applying yoga tools to the condition of autism.

Additionally, I found at least one book on Amazon.com specifically on yoga for children with autism, as well a few websites devoted to the subject. And a year ago, in the Huffington Post, Elaine Gavalas devoted a post to this very topic and cited several of the studies above. There is even a dedicated yoga program in Madison, Wisconsin, called YogAutism, which teaches classes to those with ASD, as well as training others interested in assisting in their classes. Their website is yogautism.org.

So, although I don’t have specific recommendations or cautions for our questioner today, I am pleased to have come across so much promising information about the positive potential for yoga and autism and hope the links provided are helpful to any others out there interested in working autism. And always, I welcome any experience our readership has on this topic via our comments.  So, readers, please contact us if you have any information to add to this discussion!

—Baxter