Benefits of Yoga for Kids

Benefits in the Classroom

Kidding Around Yoga methods integrate seamlessly into school curriculums and classroom routines, providing yoga-based opportunities for mindfulness, behavior and stress management, health awareness, and social-emotional learning.

the research findings

West Virginia University Research

Kidding Around Yoga was honored to share our EduKAY program with dozens of schools and hundreds of teachers in West Virginia. The following is a summary of the findings.

• Educators reported a significant increase in the ability of students to regulate their emotions following implementation of EduKAY strategies in the classroom.
• Teachers at midpoint and post-survey reported that mindfulness strategies in the classroom allowed them to spend more minutes on classroom instruction time.
• Educators at post-survey reported an increase in feeling equipped and knowledgeable in strategies to support students, recognizing kids in crisis, ability to de-escalate situations, and resources available to them to support students in the school and community.
• Overall, there appears to be a declining trend in disciplinary actions and referrals for behavioral/emotional challenges to school nurses/counselors based on principal reports, but more research is needed.

Click HERE to read the West Virginia Prevention Research Center full report.

School-based yoga programs are being increasingly implemented across the United States as a result of evidence produced from research. These programs address stress and anxiety, promote social and emotional learning, and physical and emotional health. These are all basic requirements for readiness to learn and for a positive and healthy school climate.

Here’s what the research says:

Evidence-Based Research

• School-based yoga helps to develop Mind-Body Awareness by training students how to pay attention to the relationship between the two. As a result, students notice the impact of stress on their well-being. This awareness (also known as mindfulness) may lead to changes in behavior. Check out these studies below for more information.
  • Benavides & Caballero, 2009
  • Wang & Hagins, 2016
  • Eastman-Mueller et al., 2013
• Self-regulation can refer to our ability to manage our stress, emotions, and behaviors. Research is starting to show that yoga and meditation may help youth manage their stress and mood and behave more positively. Check out these studies below for more information.
  • MLERN, 2012
  • Kaley-Isley, Peterson, Fischer, & Peterson, 2010
  • Miller et al., 2014
  • Butzer et al., 2015
  • Schonert-Reichl & Lawlor, 2010
• Research suggests that yoga may improve physical fitness in adolescents as well as result in improved respiratory function, increased exercise adherence, and reduced obesity risk factors. An important difference between yoga and mindfulness meditation is that yoga includes physical postures. Essentially, yoga is a practice of “mindfulness in motion” that uses the body to promote awareness of the present moment. Check out these studies below for more information.
  • Cramer, Lauche, Haller, et al., 2014
  • Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012
  • Purohit et al., 2016
  • Liu et al., 2014
  • Bryan, Pinto, & Parasher, 2011
• Recent research suggests that providing educators with training in yoga and mindfulness-based skills may have several beneficial effects for educators, including increases in calmness, mindfulness, well-being, and positive mood, improvements in classroom management, emotional reactivity, stabilized blood pressure, cortisol awakening response, and decreases in mind and body stress. Providing teachers with skills and practices to enhance their own self care is a crucial step toward improving classroom climate, teacher effectiveness and student outcomes. Check out these studies below for more information.
  • Harris et al., 2016
  • Jennings et al., 2013
  • Kemeny et al., 2012
  • Nosaka & Okamura, 2015
  • Schussler et al., 2016
  • Sharp & Jennings, 2016