Dressed to Impress

One of the kids in my yoga and autism group at Touchstone is named Kobi.  Kobi really likes the other girl in our class named Lilly.  At our second class, Kobi showed up wearing, I kid you not, an awesome pin-stripe SUIT.  Not stretchy yoga clothes, but a suit.  He was ready to impress Lilly.  He even brought a little Happy Meal toy to give her as a gift.  Unfortunately, as life goes, there was a change in the routine – Lilly was really sick and couldn’t make it to class.

Naturally, Kobi got pretty upset.  One characteristic of autism is the inability to be flexible with a routine or schedule, and Lilly being absent definitely threw off his routine.  He started screaming and crying, telling us that this was not fair and that Lilly had to come.  His mom said that he had been having a very rough week, and once he started going, he probably would not stop for the rest of the evening.

As Kobi ripped off his jacket and shoes and walked down the hallway screaming, his mom had to excuse herself for a breather.  Myself and Elizabeth, who works for Touchstone, worked on trying to calm him down.  We were ultimately successful with having Kobi use a cell phone to take pictures of his suit and toys he brought for Lilly, and then send them to her mom.  After about half an hour, he was under control, and I asked him if he was ready for yoga.  He right away ran out to get his mom, tell her he was ready for yoga, and help me set the yoga mats up.

Although he was pretty upset with the change in routine, he was ultimately able to calm himself down and really enjoy the (shortened) yoga practice.  I brought a Tibetan singing bowl with me, which if you haven’t heard, sounds really cool and is also very relaxing.  He really enjoyed making the bowl “sing” at the beginning and end of our class. 

It was awesome to see the stress and anxiety leave his mom as he got settled in and really enjoyed the rest of class.  We did a few activities that allowed him to stretch and balance with his mom, hopefully helping to ease some of the tension.

At the end of the first class, I gave them some “homework” – working on a breathing exercise at home.  Although he had been having a rough week, he did say that he worked on his breathing.  His mom said she was also working on her breathing to calm herself when Kobi was having a breakdown.  Once he even told her she was “breathing too loud.”  She also said that he was very excited to show children in another one of his therapy groups what he had learned in yoga class.  Hopefully his excitement for yoga continues and he is able to use what he learns both as coping strategies and ways to relate to other kids!