Yoga-teaching protocol adapted for children with visual impairment.

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Special Education
• Yoga Therapy

Background:

• Childhood visual impairment (VI) negatively impacts neuro-psychomotor development and overall well-being.
• Yoga offers a potential holistic approach to support children facing VI challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a specialized yoga teaching protocol for children with VI.
• To identify children with VI's preferred learning modalities within the yoga context.

Main Methods:

• A 16-week yoga program was implemented for 41 students with VI.
• A novel teaching sequence included verbal cues, tactile modeling, step-by-step instruction, group learning, and physical guidance.
• Student preferences were assessed via questionnaire and verbal feedback.

Main Results:

• 33 students (aged 11.97 ± 1.94) participated in the preference assessment.
• Physical guidance emerged as the most favored learning method, chosen by 78.79% of respondents.

Conclusions:

• The developed yoga protocol offers a potentially effective and comfortable method for teaching yoga to children with VI.
• Further research is recommended to validate this protocol's efficacy in diverse settings.