Daily yoga prepares Peter Hall students for the day, and Karaoke builds confidence
As a physiotherapist, I’m often asked by teachers how to bring adapted yoga into their classrooms. I’ve seen first-hand how intentional movement helps children, but I wanted a program that was evidence-based and truly adaptable to our students’ needs. That’s when I came across the Get Ready Project (formerly Get Ready to Learn), a school-based yoga program designed for exactly this purpose.
The Get Ready Project is a school-based yoga program that is practiced daily in the classroom during the morning routine in order to prepare students and staff for the day. It uses guided videos, with classroom staff demonstrating the movements and following specific guidelines to keep the routine consistent. The guided videos are selected following the level of the students in the classroom, and the program is easy to integrate into the routine.
Together with my occupational therapist colleague, we completed the training to become program facilitators. We launched our pilot project at the elementary campus with three teachers from classrooms with students of varying levels of understanding, physical abilities and participation. The teachers received the one-day training to be able to lead the Get Ready Project within their class under our support. Challenges came up, of course, but soon, the students were requesting their daily sessions. Staff also began to look forward to this quiet, calming way to start the day.
Just four months after the first implementation of the program in a classroom, the results were striking. Students followed routines more smoothly and knew what was expected. They stayed quiet and calm on their mats or chairs, imitated the movements to the best of their abilities but without pressure, sang back during the “Circle of Song,” and even helped set up and clean up.
The teachers and program facilitators, along with other adults implicated with these classrooms, noted multiple positive changes in the students. As a physiotherapist, I was hoping for improvements in the students’ motor imitation, body awareness, motor planning and postural control. However, I was amazed by how what I thought was a simple movement activity ended up having benefits far beyond physical skills. Teachers reported better regulation, attention, ability to stay in one place, engagement and even communication.
My hope is that the Get Ready Project can be implemented in additional classrooms of all types of clienteles throughout Peter Hall School. I feel that this program has the potential to create lasting, positive change.
Info: thegetreadyproject.com.
Corine Tran is a physiotherapist at Peter Hall School.
