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Arc combines yoga and storytelling Partnership wiith North Weymouth autism center pays dividends

Weymouth News - 2/28/2018

For a special group of children, story time at Cohasset's Paul Pratt Memorial Library has recently taken on new life, with sensory elements and yoga integrated into the readings.

Due to a partnership between the Autism Research Center South Shore in North Weymouth and Norwell's Little Bee Yoga Company, the library invites autistic children and their families once a month for the interactive program led by librarians and Little Bee'sChristine Walker.

"These families have traditionally been avoiding libraries because they think libraries are supposed to be quiet places, though we have always welcomed people of all abilities here," Research Librarian Gayle Walsh said. "This was an opportunity to invite and create programs and events just for them to come in."

February's sensory story time was centered on "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae, which was read to the children with props and sound effects imitating what was happening in the story.

After the first read of the story, Walker took over, leading the children and their parents through a yoga class designed to appeal to the younger group and to incorporate the themes and plot of the book.

"All the yoga poses are very similar to what you do as an adult, but we call them different names," Walker said. "Rather than side angle, we're a giraffe. With child's pose, we were a rhinoceros. When we were warthogs, that's called happy baby in adult yoga."

Walker teaches youth yoga throughout the South Shore at support groups, Cardinal Cushing Centers, churches, libraries and scout groups.

"You're still dealing with all the traditional benefits of yoga," Walker said. "You're doing the breathing, the meditation, the poses, the guided relaxation. All of that is incorporated that you would use anyway, it's just in a kids' style."

The parent of a special needs child herself, Walker began practicing the craft after seeing the benefits her child experienced from doing yoga with an occupational therapist.

"The kids have a tough time self regulating, and this helps them find out where there bodies are in space and breathe, so when they start to get out of control they can come back down," she said. "That's the great thing about this program. They need to know, when their bodies are revved up, what tools they can use to bring it back down."

Kirsten Sherman, of Randolph, brought her son for the first time after learning about the program through the ARC.

"We went to a support group last month and we heard about this," Sherman said. "It was amazing, my son absolutely loved it. We've done yoga at very loosely at home, but I'm definitely very interested in practicing with him."

Representatives from the library and the Arc will be presenting at the Massachusetts Library Association's conference in May, highlighting this program in an effort to encourage other libraries to duplicate it.

"Libraries are often not a place you can come with your special needs child, because they're unpredictable," Walker said. "This library is unbelievable; they are so gung-ho about making it accessible to everybody and making you feel comfortable."

The program is sponsored in part by the library as part of the Equal Access for All project, a federally-funded grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the MassachusettsBoard of Library Commissioners to develop services for people with disabilities.

Follow James Kukstis on Twitter at @MarinerJamesK.