Yoga helps Tampa Day School students focus, de-stress

Ever wish that you'd started yoga when you were a little bit younger?

Third-grade teacher Stephanie Mullarkey has given her students the chance to do just that.

"As an adult, we learn it at 35 -- why not learn it at 8?" says Mullarkey, a yoga practitioner and fitness enthusiast who teaches at Tampa Day School.

Mullarkey says yoga gives her students more confidence in themselves. Most didn't have the strength to do many of the poses when they began practicing once a week back in August.

"It helps me concentrate. It helps my muscles," says Jack Pepio, 9.

It's important for any child (and adults, too) to build concentration and focus, but it's particularly freeing for the students at Tampa Day School, most of whom have mild to moderate learning disabilities, anxiety, hyperactivity and/or attention disorders such as ADD and ADHD.

"Children with ADHD tend to retain more stress in their bodies, and yoga is a way to relieve that," says school psychologist and lower school head Andrea Mowatt.

Practicing physical poses gives the students an opportunity to achieve something outside the classroom, where they often struggle, Mullarkey says. Even though she's taught at Tampa Day School since 2000, this is her first year teaching yoga to her students.

"Who remembers what we want to do to help us balance and focus?" Mullarkey asks her class before going into a tree pose.

Hands go up.

"Look at one point," says Bailey Clawson, 8.

"What do we have to hold?"

"Our stamina," the class says in unison.

While yoga may have serious benefits for these students, it doesn't mean they can't have a little fun along the way. Mullarkey often will guide the kids in a shape-shifting visual exercise.

One time, they were in the desert, shifting into cobra pose after they saw a snake, then into the ab-burning bike pose.

"Instead of bike, I do dirt bike," says Max Tishler, 8, who promptly laid on his back with his legs in the air and saying, "vroom-vroom," to demonstrate his technique.

Boat pose (navasana) takes on both a literal and mathematical meaning for the students. Often, they'll hold the intense core pose while singing "Row Your Boat," or they'll recite the multiplication table for the number seven for seven seconds.

"When we link it to a movement, it helps them learn," says Mullarkey, who holds a master's degree in education in learning disabilities.

It's also a sneaky way to get them to not hold their breath, something kids and grownups both do when they're in challenging poses on the mat - and challenging situations outside the studio. Mullarkey doesn't leave yoga at the playground or library, where the kids usually practice. She's integrated some of the concepts inside her classroom, to help students cope with the frustration they feel when they're having difficulty learning.

She teaches them that when they feel themselves getting upset, they just need to take a break by taking some deep breaths.

Practicing poses also gets the kids to calm down. At least some of them.

"I like savansana (corpse pose) because it's quiet," says 9-year-old Max Molea. "It's great and relaxing."

"And you get to whisper to your friends," classmate Max Tishler chimed in.