136 Yoga for Speech-Language Development
Another way to be flexible is to substitute the children’s
names for the characters in the story. Doing so will make the
yoga-literacy experience more personal and memorable, thereby
helping to maintain the children’s attention (Vukelich, Christie,
and Enz 2002). For example when reading Frog’s Breathtaking
Speech by Michael Chissick, a child’s name could be substituted
for the character “Frog.” Another attention-getting technique is
the use of props such as puppets that represent different characters
(Flynn 2013). Incorporating them into the yoga-literacy activity
helps the story come alive thereby maintaining the children’s focus.
For example, butterfly and caterpillar puppets can accompany
the reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and the
practice of the corresponding poses. Figure 9.2 illustrates a girl in
butterfly and caterpillar poses.
Figure 9.2 Butterfly and caterpillar poses