Yoga for Speech-Language Development

Yoga for Vocabulary and Linguistic Concepts 101

Table 7.3 Additional words and linguistic concepts
related to children’s yoga practice

Spatial Temporal Attributes Colors Shapes Numbers

above/

below

before/

after

gentle blue circle one

forward/

backward

first/then light/dark green diamond two

in front

of/behind

light/heavy orange triangle three

in/on peaceful red four

in/out round violet/

purple

five

on/off shallow/

deep

white six

right/left short/long yellow seven

side short/tall eight

through slow/fast nine

together small/big ten

top/

bottom

smooth

under/

over

soft

up/down strong

vertical/

horizontal

warm/cool

Color names, another type of attribute, could also be incorporated
into yoga classes. For example, children could be asked to name the
color of their airplane, boat, butterfly, bridge, table, chair, flower, or
other relevant pose. Further, the adult could engage the children in
a practice related to the chakras, a system of seven energy centers,
which, according to yoga philosophy (Simpkins and Simpkins
2011; Williams 2010), are associated with a particular color and
sound. For example, the color blue and the Sanskrit consonant-
vowel-consonant syllable “ham” (pronounced /ham/) are related
to the fifth chakra, which is associated with the anatomical region