120 Yoga for Speech-Language Development
switch roles. Children could also take turns assigning different
animal roles to other students as they act out life in the jungle,
on the farm, under the sea, or in another environment. Another
activity that relates to the self-other dimension of play is yoga
sculpture (Yaffa and Yaffa n.d.). In this activity, one child rests
in child pose while the other plays the role of the sculptor-artist,
who moves the resting child, one part at a time, into a yoga pose
statue. The particular pose could be derived from a card in a deck
of yoga poses that the child is given or selects. Several examples of
card decks of yoga poses are listed in Appendix 4 at the end of this
book. The skillful adult who leads the activity needs to determine
if it is developmentally appropriate, as the children would need to
be familiar with the concepts of sculpture and artists.
Another idea for the facilitation of the self-other dimension
of play involves two groups of children, one group that assumes
the role of trees and another that pretends to be bees (Yaffa and
Yaffa n.d.). This could also be accomplished with an adult-child
dyad. The children who role-play the trees practice tree pose. The
children who pretend to be bees move around the various trees
producing a buzzing or humming sound (described as “bee breath”
in Chapter 5), but do not touch them. After a few minutes, the
children (or members of the adult-child dyad) switch roles. In a
variation of this yoga activity, the children could enact the role of
flowers while seated in flower pose.
As noted in the foregoing chapters, songs can be incorporated
into children’s yoga practice. For example, the familiar song “I’m a
Little Teapot” can be used to enhance self-other relations in
a group or dyad. Some children can pretend to be teapots and
assume teapot pose. The others, who assume the role of teacups,
receive imaginary tea from the teapots. Figure 8.5 depicts two
girls in these poses. The children can then reverse roles so that the
relatively passive teacups get to be the more active teapots. These
role reversal partner yoga activities support the development of
reciprocity in addition to the self-other dimension of play.