66 Yoga for Speech-Language Development
can also facilitate infant torso twisting or rolling movements to
each side using directional words such as “left and right” or “back
and forth” or the verbs “twisting” or “rolling” as the appropriate
movement is performed. As noted previously, the caregiver can
add the words “up” and “down” to appropriate movements such as
in bridge pose, fostering comprehension of these locative action
terms. Similarly, the child will hear the descriptive terms “fast”
and “slow” while participating in the “Hop Along Yogi” routine
mentioned above, facilitating the comprehension of those words.
The classes can also provide a context for the baby to hear his
name as the instructor refers to the various caregiver-child dyads.
At home, the caregiver can also sing the child’s name in face-
to-face interaction in a variety of everyday contexts to facilitate
comprehension of this important term. Garabedian suggests a
variation of the “Hop Along Yogi” song (Garabedian 2004) in
which the baby’s name replaces the word “yogi.” This adaptation
could work with other songs and routines. The foregoing
suggestions apply to all children, those who are typically
developing and those who are neurodevelopmentally impaired.
Books and other resources
Speech-language pathologists are familiar with the importance
of engaging in shared book reading with prelinguistic children
(Pepper and Weitzman 2004). However, developmentally young
children need active learning experiences and cannot learn to
practice yoga through books! Nevertheless, books can serve as a
context for joint attention and for providing the baby with early
emergent literacy experiences. The topic of emergent literacy will
be explored in Chapter 9. In terms of specific children’s books, we
did not identify any with a yogic orientation that were specifically
for infants, but several were written for toddlers in the second
year of life and the early preschool years. One notable yoga book