Yoga for Speech-Language Development

Yoga for Prelinguistic Communication 57

At other times, the baby rests directly on his caregiver’s body.
The optimal positions to facilitate engagement, communication,
and speech-language development occur when the baby faces
the adult (Pepper and Weitzman 2004). When caregiver and
child face one another, the infant has the opportunity both to
initiate interaction and to respond to adult-initiated interaction,
paving  the groundwork for later conversations. When the baby
enters into these dialogues with his parents or another caregiver
(Greenspan 1985), the adult can talk to the baby about the ongoing
action of the yoga routine or sing rhymes or songs that accompany
the movement. Garabedian (2004, p.17) provides many examples
of this “Sing and Do” technique, in which the adult uses a “slow
and melodic speaking voice” to accompany the yoga movements.
Speech-language pathologists refer to this type of speech
register as infant-directed or child-directed speech, which has
replaced the formerly used terms “motherese” or “parentese” in
the professional literature (Newman and Sachs 2017). Another
characteristic of this speech input is that it codes the “here and
now” of the ongoing moment. Garabedian (2004, p.17) suggests
singing “toes to nose” as caregivers perform the action of bringing
their baby’s toes to their nose and then tickling their baby’s nose
with their toes in a playful fashion. In this way, the caregiver’s
talk coordinates the movement with linguistic input, supporting
the child’s comprehension. Larson and Howard (2002) similarly
provide specific suggestions of songs such as “Open, Shut Them”
and rhymes that could be used in this way.
As noted in the previous chapter, massage is sometimes
incorporated into yoga classes for children. In yoga classes for infants,
a gentle baby massage is often used as part of a session. Whether
done as part of a group yoga class or at other times such as right
before or after a bath at home, massage is an excellent tool to foster
the caregiver’s bonding with her baby (Garabedian 2004; Larson and
Howard 2002). As baby massage is always conducted with the child
lying supine looking up, this activity can also facilitate engagement.