Karma Kids Visit 11/21/16

On our fieldwork we went to Karma Kids Yoga on west 23d street. When we arrived we were greeted by the receptionist who then guided us to a room in the back where we met a woman named Sherri. Sherri is a yoga instructor who not only helped us relax but prepared us for the next part of our field work which was doing yoga with a boy named Kingston. The reason we were meeting with Kingston is because he has autism, we thought that we could participate with him and cheer him up as he did yoga. After Sherri had relaxed us and prepared us, we finally got to meet Kingston. He was sitting next to what I assume is his babysitter/caretaker when we first saw him. When our yoga time was starting, Kingston was helped up to stand by the instructor, this was because his meds make him weak which makes it challenging for him to stand up. Our first activity was freeze yoga, which is freeze dance ending in a yoga position. The yoga teacher gave Kingston a chance to choose the song, the teacher acknowledged that Kingston’s favorite musician is Meghan Trainor so she gave him the choice of either no or me too, Kingston communicated without speaking and the teacher understood him, and put on me too. We then danced around, Kingston seemed to be overcome with joy. He was dancing by bouncing a little bit and slapping himself in the thigh. The teacher then stopped the music and all of us including Kingston stopped dancing, we then did down dog. We were shown how to do this pose by Kingston who although may have been feeling tired and weak used his strength to hold himself up and teach us how to do this pose. The rest of the class was made up of some yoga poses and times to relax. I was very surprised with how Kingston and the teacher communicated. While Kingston didn’t make a sound he explained himself through motions, and eye movements. This taught me that some people who have disabilities are not understood and this could definitely hurt a person’s feelings. I know when I’m not understood it makes me angry and sad, but usually understood. People with disabilities are almost always not understood or treated correctly. So I think this experience taught me to do my best job of understanding everyone. This fieldwork touched our group. After we exited the building where we had met Kingston we all expressed how it had made us felt. For me it impressed me how much a single activity can cheer someone up. The look on Kingston’s face was happiness the whole time, and according to our preparation the reason for all this happiness was yoga. From this I learned that all people deserve the ability to do what makes them happy. So people with disabilities who love sports should be given the chance to play them in a way that makes it possible with their disability.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *