On January 9th, 2016 I had the honor of spending a day with members of the Live with Autism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There is no Occupational Therapy in Vietnam – so I was asked to share the basic concepts/approaches utilized by OT’s – so these parents can better understand their children and how to help them. This was a huge challenge – since every child is different, and our time together was brief. My goal was to share concepts and strategies that could most realistically be understood and implemented into daily life. I recognize that I only scratched the surface – more education/sharing is needed! Occupational Therapists are believers in experiential learning. We all have different learning styles – some learn best by listening, some through visual input and others through movement. This is also true for our children. To help the audience learn the material offered during the workshop, materials were presented verbally (with the help of translators), visually (power point and samples) and by “doing”. During the workshop we followed a picture schedule for the day and another for the sequence of our sample yoga class. We discussed options for LOTS of sensory experience – including play in various textures and other elements of a “sensory diet” including controlled amounts of sound, movement and “heavy work”. The afternoon included a sample Yoga class – with volunteers participating in the role of a child. As a therapeutic yoga teacher for Children with Special Needs. I aim to help each child experience nervous system regulation – hopefully achieving calm/focus at the beginning of the class, working up to active/playful, and returning to calm/quiet for the end. Of course, we also work on the physical benefits of a yoga practice, including flexibility, strengthening, body awareness and motor coordination. In the cognitive domain, the children must listen, follow instructions, and have opportunities to work on skills such as sequencing and memory. We also address Social/Communication through “child friendly” activities and set-up. For instance, I prefer to have the mats set up in a circle, and encourage “all eyes on me” – or upon a particular participant during games where children have opportunities to lead a pose. We play a yoga name game – which offers practice on introducing oneself, and remembering the names of others. We create yoga stories, and play a variety of other games that allow fun practice with yoga poses as well as controlled interaction with others. For deep relaxation at the end of practice – I offer to cover the children with scarves, and read a meditative story. Many of these children have difficulty calming and falling asleep at night – so practicing the skill of relaxing/calming while being read to can be very valuable. Workshop participants were engaged throughout the day – and asked amazing questions in an attempt to carry principles taught into their home or classroom. I plan to create a video of a children’s yoga class to be shared – and look forward to future collaboration with this group.

This teaching opportunity helped inspire my desire to reach out further with sharing the therapeutic benefits of yoga, on a global level. This treatment modality incorporates so many of the basic precepts of my professional goals - and is approachable and enjoyable for such varied populations. Wow! I left knowing that I want to do more - and am actively working on making the video, and future training/workshops a reality. The main short-fall in VN, was the lack of a "tool" to leave behind. In the future I wish to leave a video behind.