Tai Chi for Kids
Training Sessions
Training sessions can be scheduled for your school or organization. In school workshops include classroom demonstrations as well as professional development.Video conference workshops can be arranged for parents, children, teachers and other professionals.
AAHPERD is holding their annual convention in Indianapolis from March 16-20, 2010. There will be two presentation on Tai Chi:
Kripalu - Tai Chi For Kids 5 Day workshop, July 25-30, 2010, Tai Chi for Kids weekend workshop, July 30-August 1, 2010
Rancho La Puerta - A Qigong week was offered in November 2009. The schedule for 2010 is not yet available.
We can help you set up the best workshop/presentation for your needs including
Costs and details depend on your needs, the number of days, transportation to your location, and availability of Cari Shurman, the creator of Tai Chi Moves and Tai Chi Moves for Kids, to come to your area. Please contact us at taichiforkids@gmail.com and we will work out a program for you.
Technology enables us to offer workshops through computer to a small group or to the full staff if you project the computer image on a screen. A one-hour professional development via video conferencing costs $90. It can be arranged at the time that works best for you and your organization. The session includes practice of the moves, discussion of implementation, and a question and answer period.
Recent studies have shown that the benefits of tai chi for children and adults include improvement in:
• Ability to stay calm
• Co-ordination of the two sides of the body
• Creativity and visualization
• Focused attention and concentration
• Increased positive energy
• Performance in work and athletics
• Behavior of ADD and ADHD
• Self-esteem and self-confidence.
For some specific studies on Tai Chi for adults and children, please check the following links:
Tai Chi and mindfulness-based stress reduction may be transformational tools that can be used in educational programs appropriate for middle school-aged children.
Study done in a Boston Pubic Middle School
The Johnson Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services of the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital uses Tai Chi to helpi children who have cerebral palsy and other movement disorders. "Tai Chi represents optimal body movement, honed over centuries," said laboratory director Jessica Rose, PhD.
With slow movements as fluid as silk, the gentle Chinese practice of Tai Chi seems tailor-made for easing sore joints and muscles. The Arthritis Foundation recommends Tai Chi. Some summer camps for children with arthritis teach Tai Chi.
A regular tai chi exercise program can help people (children and adults) better control their diabetes and lower glucose levels, according to a University of Florida study.
Doing Tai Chi for 30 minutes once a week help lower the children's blood pressure by about 10% average. The greatest reward from teaching tai chi is the number of students who went on to study medicine because of their study of tai chi. Repetitive Strain Injury is very common. Tai Chi movements exercises the entire hand, every joint and every combination of joints to alleviate RSI.
During and after five weeks of tai chi lessons, adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) showed less anxiety, daydreaming, inappropriate emotions and hyperactivity, according to a study by the Touch Research Institute (TRI).
“Exercise is positively one of the best treatments for ADD. It helps work off excess energy and aggression in a positive way, it allows for noise-reduction within the mind, it stimulates the hormonal and neurochemical systems in a most therapeutic way, and it soothes and calms the body.” Drs. Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., and John J. Ratey, M.D., experts on the management of ADD
Tai Chi can improve the pulmonary function of asthmatic children. However, they caution that long-term follow-up is required to determine the impact of Tai Chi on the severity of asthmatic symptoms. Journal of microbiology, immunology, and infection, February 2008.
Studies on College students showed physical measures of pain and general health, and mental measures of vitality and mental health were significantly improved after Tai Chi. Scores on the mental health dimension appeared to be particularly sensitive to change.
http://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/TaiChi.htm#CollegeStudents
Tai Chi is one of the simplest ways for people who use wheelchairs to improve their physical and mental health.
Dr. Zibin Guo, medical anthropologist,University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Geography
http://occupational-therapy.advanceweb.com/Article/Wheelchair-Tai-Chi.aspx
"Study shows that low-intensity exercise such as Tai Chi has great potential for health promotion as it can help older people to avoid falls by developing their balance, muscle strength and confidence."
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Eight weeks of Tai Chi was associated with significant improvement in balance.
“Taiji practitioners have higher peak oxygen
uptake and higher oxygen uptake at the
ventilatory threshold.
Taiji has positive effects on postural control.
Taiji is an aerobic exercise with moderate
intensity.
http://www.qigonginstitute.org/html/papers/TaijiResearchRev1.pdf
Cari Shurman, MAT, founder of WITHIN Wellness Center in Miami, is the creator of Tai Chi Moves for Kids©. She holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree and is certified as a teacher of Tai Chi and Qigong by the National Qigong Association, is a mentor of the Universal Society of the Integral Way and is a certified teacher of Five Element Qigong by the World Institute of Self Healing.
In her 30 years of teaching and traveling around the world, Shurman observed Tai Chi being used in China as a needed break for students between classes. She says she has found nothing more effective for students than Tai Chi to help them do better and feel better about themselves. She has worked successfully with individual children, as well as groups, teaching them Tai Chi skills and focused energy to help them cope with learning and attention disabilities and hyperactivity as well as improving their day to day concentration and performance. Autistic children have responded extremely well to tai chi movements.
Cari does teacher training workshops in schools throughout the country.