How Can Yoga assist People with Intellectual Disabilities Reach their Potential?

The Yoga For Me Co-assistants project

How can yoga help people with Intellectual Disabilities reach their maximum potential?

How it all started

In January 2022 a class member bought their own yoga cards and wanted to share these with the group. They were a very advanced pack of yoga cards and not the regular Yoga Pretzel cards the group were familiar with. In response to this interest i introduced a section at the end of class, called Surprise Surprise, where this yogi selected 3 cards and I demonstrated the pose, simplifying as needed, and all participants moved their body into that shape. It became a popular section mainly as the members could have a bit of banter with the person selecting the cards and it was a challenge for me.

Every online yoga class this person brought their yoga cards and other members wanted to purchase cards and become more involved in the yoga class.

This got me thinking about how I could safely involve members more in the yoga class, maybe taking responsibility for delivering a section (under supervision) and learning more about yoga?

This was the inspiration for developing the Yoga For Me Co-assistants training. I took my ideas to the Innovate Trust Leadership team who were very supportive as this fitted in with their ethos of supporting adults with learning disabilities to reach their maximum potential. Meetings were held with the leadership and activity participation team to discuss logistics, training programme, the level that the content was pitched at, developing an easy read workbook and identifying potential members who may be interested in starting this project.

Innovate Trust and I agreed the following outcomes for participants froths training

Innovate Trust and I agreed the following outcomes for participants from the training:

1.     To build on the baseline knowledge in an activity they enjoy

2.     That this development is in a safe and supported environment

3.     That the programme is structured guiding the service users step by step

4.     To define clear roles within the yoga class enabling an understanding of expectation.

Those participating in the project develop skills in:

leadership

Social and emotional learning

time management

 communication

  attention to detail

work ethic

Teamwork

problem solving

Prior to commencing the project, we completed a pre project questionnaire, met with participants individually to give them an opportunity to ask questions about the training, explain how the training would be delivered, identify the variety of co-assistant roles and the support they would receive throughout the training.

Interaction is key to learning using the Insight App

I developed a co-assistant workbook and established a group on the Innovate Trust, Insight App to post messages, discuss topics and provide additional information to support learning.

The project was launched in April 2022 with 10 participants attending weekly yoga classes. 5 members attended online classes and 5 in person class. There are 3 classes every week that the yogis could join and be active in roles as co-host (online class only), lead breath work and lead the yoga game. All under supervision as part of the yoga classes.

I have been delighted to see the enthusiasm and development of all the participants over the past 3 months.

Their, and my, experiences will be shared in future blogs.

Please follow us on our journey.

Thank you

Lisa and trainee Co-assitants