18 Yoga for Speech-Language Development
et al. 2007). Growing evidence suggests that, like adults, children
benefit from practicing yoga. The emerging evidence-base for the
benefits of yoga with children consists of systematic reviews (e.g.
Birdee et al. 2009; Galantino, Galbavy, and Quinn 2008; Kaley-
Isley et al. 2010; Serwacki and Cook-Cottone 2012), randomized
controlled trials (e.g. Jensen and Kenny 2004; White 2012),
pretest-posttest efficacy studies (e.g. Eggleston 2015; Koenig,
Buckley-Reen, and Garg 2012), feasibility studies (e.g. Thygeson
et al. 2010), descriptive research (e.g. Harper 2010; White 2012),
and anecdotal reports (Flynn and Ebert 2013). This literature
suggests that yoga benefits children with respect to psycho-
physiological outcomes, such as stress reduction (Eggleston 2015;
White 2012), as well as increased self-regulation (Ehleringer
2010; Kenny 2002), attention (Ehleringer 2010; Jensen and
Kenny 2004), and self-esteem (Eggleston 2015). Research has
documented the educational and therapeutic benefits from
the fields of education, physical therapy, occupational therapy,
medicine, and psychotherapy. Some studies claim that children
who received yoga as a rehabilitative adjunct to traditional physical
(Galantino et al. 2008) and occupational (Koenig et al. 2012)
therapies benefitted from the practice. However, researchers,
including those who have conducted systematic reviews of the
evidence, agree that additional research is needed. More rigorous
research designs with larger clinical trials are required to support
the use of yoga with both typically developing and disordered
populations of children.
The practice of yoga in school settings has become increasingly
popular over the past decade with an accumulation of the scientific
evidence for this trend. When yoga is used in schools, the focus is
typically on educating the whole child and includes areas such as
improving test anxiety, stress resilience, concentration, well-being,
and self-esteem (Butzer et al. 2015; Eggleston 2015; Flynn and
Ebert 2013). Several manualized, research-based programs for