Viniyoga® and Children with Special Needs/Gifts
with Katri Kaldaru, Estonia
Katri Kaldaru, in her element, in the forest.
Katri Kaldaru has been practising yoga for many years now and lives in Rakvere Estonia. She first came into the Viniyoga tradition in 2011. She has completed her Vedic Chant Teacher Training and Viniyoga Therapist Training with Menaka Desikachar and Kausthub Desikachar.
She currently teaches both out of her private practice as well as through the school system in Rakvere. She teaches children who are normal, those with special needs and also those who are gifted. She also teaches a lot of elderly people who have limited abilities.
She also spends a lot of time in the forest taking care of trees and animals. She tries to live a holistic life in harmony with nature.
Here she shares her invaluable experience of teaching Viniyoga® to children with Special Needs and Gifts.
1) What brought you to Viniyoga in the first place?
A message. 2011. This message was sent through a tree and it was a very mystical experience for me at the time, because back then I didn’t know trees can communicate or be used for communication. I was looking for a teacher at the time and this message helped me to find one. Didn’t even have to leave Estonia, he came here.
2) How did your work of teaching Viniyoga to Care Seekers with Children with Special Needs/Gifts manifest?
2012 I was a class teacher at the local Waldorf School and in my class, there were several children with a special need. Also, because at that time it was the only school in the area where they could go. This was my first experience with Special needs. I started to teach them mantra, Gayatri mantra to be precise.
2013 came the first private yoga therapy classes, that were offered by Kausthub Desikachar. My role was to translate and teach the practices and offer any support they needed after a class and later. During that time I started giving yoga group classes to children-yoga as one class and Vedic chanting as another.
2014 I started at the local school, first with children and a year later with special needs class and it has grown ever since. Now there are two schools I teach Special Needs, plus my own yoga school, that offers private curriculums for them if they choose.
Gifted children. I consider my own children to be gifted. I started communicating with both of them while still pregnant. With my son on the second day of pregnancy. With my daughter before conception. So gifted children have been part of my life from 2003, actually even earlier from 2001.
It should be said, that there are no special classes created for gifted/ spiritual/ intellectual children, so very often they have to learn in a normal class, that may or may not create a lot of problems or they are put together with Special Needs children. Both options are very bad options for them. I find that very sad.
I also teach viniyoga and offer yoga therapy for adults. Families. Brothers and sisters and so on. Any combination, that is good for the aimed cause.
3) What frequency do you teach these students? And how long is each session?
Different schools offer different solutions. At Rakvere Gymnasium they get one group class per week (45min) and one private class per week. An individual class is for the whole class, so the frequency depends on the number of students there. The maximum number is 12. I work closely with a class teacher and if she has someone she wants me to meet, I will.
Rakvere Science Gymnasium offers one group class per week, but there is another teacher present, so I don’t have to deal with behaviour problems that much.
Rakvere Yoga School children can attend group classes if they can and are ready for it or individual classes. We also offer them classes of special interest; classes to find out what kind of teaching method suits them for example languages or math or some other subject they need help at school with. It is very individual-based. We have children whose main focus is to heal an illness. We have children whose main focus is to develop some gift they have. We have children who are very spiritual and so are their practices and teachings.
At Rakvere Yoga School the length of classes varies. Group class can be anywhere between 45 min- 2 hours (5th grade). Individual classes from 30 min- 3 hours (with brakes). State schools it is 45 min.
4) What kind of tools do you offer them and how do they receive it?
Children who start learning yoga at an early age will receive anything you give them. At the later age it becomes more and more difficult and it takes time to be able to use deeper tools.
All tools, that are age/student appropriate are used. We also have to create many study materials. Firstly, because of the language and secondly to make them understand concepts, that are usually written/created for adults. All children who get individual classes, also get an individual yoga practice. The school, that offers only group classes, gets a yoga practice, that is meant for the whole class.
The main tools we use are mantra; asana; bhavana; nyasa; yama and niyama; pronunciation of Sanskrit letters and rules how to chant; stick figures to read practices; silence, self observation, relaxation techniques, pulse reading, energy reading, different games, art, music, nature. Pranayama and meditation comes at the later age.
For example now with the outbreak of the virus all our students can read a yoga practice, that is sent to them. Maybe there are some exceptions in the first grades, but overall. The aim is to give them the power back (or not to take it away in the first place) as soon as possible so they are as independent as possible.
We also deal with problems like how to solve conflicts, bullying, violence at home or somewhere else and concepts like friendship, love, family, all kinds of relationships inside and outside. Some children cannot bare some mantras in the beginning!
5) What challenges have you faced in bringing Viniyoga to these students?
The main challenge is money since very many children who are in Special Needs children classes are from families with very limited funds. Luckily here we have these local schools, that provide them with this option. Otherwise, most of these children would never reach me/us.
Our yoga school is out for many kids, because of lack of funds. Even if a child really wants and perhaps it is the only place she/he feels secure, helped, understood. Even if boys from violent backgrounds are terrified, that they become just like their fathers and want to do anything to prevent this - it is not possible for them. We can support a limited amount of kids with their fees, but it is too few.
Another challenge is parents who don’t take it seriously or just don’t understand, what yoga therapy and viniyoga can offer their children or they don’t care. Sometimes some teachers do the same.
6) What are some of the positive effects you have seen on these Care Seekers?
All children are affected by yoga in positive ways. I hope a day will come when people realise, that if a sick child can be healed or a special needs child becomes a normal child, what yoga could do for normal and gifted children. We can’t even imagine that, because we have not tried, not as a society.
Their attention, concentration, listening and behaviour improves. Their health, grades and emotional intelligence improves. In yoga therapy perspective, their frequency gets better and their constitution of birth starts slowly to come back. Almost all special needs children have too much Vāta.
Gifted children come to peace with themselves and their gifts. They don’t feel like aliens or freaks anymore. All of them find a community, that we have here and that we try to expand internationally as well as locally.
7) What is most important for these Children with Special Needs?
Love. Acceptance.
8) What is most important for gifted children?
Understanding. Meeting, communicating with other gifted children or adults.
9)How do you see the role of Viniyoga in the future of Viniyoga Therapy in the world?
I hope it will spread all across the world. The tradition could be seen as a field of knowledge. Anything can grow out of that- new education system, new economy, new medicine, new kind of human being, anything that has a positive effect for the whole.
We need a worldwide community for that to happen. Community, that sticks together and is happy for any achievements, that serve the whole.
We opened the Children’s Fund for Yoga School if any of you feels like donating please visit here -
https://en.rakverejoogakool.com/joogakooli-lastefond
If you would like to read a study on Special Needs children and yoga, contact me by clicking the link below.