Yoga For Children’s Emotional And Learning Difficulties

By Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and Certified Yoga Therapist, and Dr Stuart McGill, Yoga Teacher, Flametree Yoga Darwin

A child who worries all the time, cannot settle, or finds reading a daily battle? Parents know how heavy that can feel. This guide brings together what Mr BKS Iyengar and the Iyengar tradition, Dr Timothy McCall and the research say about yoga, yogic breathing and mindfulness for children’s emotional and learning difficulties: worry, low mood, anger and behaviour, attention, and difficulties with reading, writing and maths, including dyslexia (a reading and spelling difficulty). Last updated: 9 November 2026.

Get 2 Free Yoga Classes And 2 Free Ebooks

Yoga for children’s anxiety, emotional and learning difficulties: the short answer

For worry, stress and mood, yes: yoga, yogic breathing and mindfulness have been found to ease anxiety and stress in young people, and they are well worth adding alongside any help a child already has. In a review of 66 trials, mindfulness programmes eased anxiety and stress, and helped attention and behaviour. In school trials of yoga, anger control, attention and anxiety improved. The largest trial, called MYRIAD, gave 8,376 school students aged 11 to 14 a ten-lesson mindfulness course. It did no better than normal lessons after one year, and students who were already at risk scored slightly worse. We say that plainly. The good news: MYRIAD tested a classroom course, not yoga, and the yoga trials in school found better anger control, attention and calm. For learning difficulties and dyslexia, no yoga trial has been done yet. There we rest on Geeta Iyengar’s children’s therapy class and the Iyengar tradition, known from practice.

The bottom line: five key moves for yoga with children’s emotional and learning difficulties

1. Keep it short, regular and playful, with a trained teacher. In the trials, 11 weeks to 3 months of school yoga classes gave better anger control, attention and calm. A weekly class at the child’s level is the place to start.
2. Teach a slow, easy breath, never a forced one. Reviews of breathing practices in teenagers found less stress. Mr Iyengar taught that nothing in pranayama (yogic breathing) can be forced.
3. Use support. Props, clear steps and a teacher who watches each child help a young person feel safe in a pose. That is how the Iyengar tradition teaches children.
4. Keep whatever help a child already has. Yoga is added alongside it. Every trial added yoga or mindfulness to ordinary school or home life.
5. Start now. A young person aged 5 to 16 can join a beginner class at Coolalinga with a parent or carer: ask us how. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price.

No trial of yoga and children has yet tested Iyengar yoga, the style we teach. The trials tested yoga in general, mindfulness programmes and breathing practices. In our view as certified Iyengar teachers, careful, well-taught yoga with props and clear steps is likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

Who was Mr BKS Iyengar? Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major teacher who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

This guide in short

• Overall evidence: Limited. Best study (Review of many trials): A review of 66 trials with 20,138 young people found that mindfulness programmes eased anxiety and stress, and helped attention, planning and self-control, and behaviour, compared with no programme (Dunning 2022). Yoga trials in schools found better anger control, attention and lower anxiety. The largest trial, of 8,376 school students (MYRIAD), found a school mindfulness course did no better than normal lessons after one year, and we report it in full below. Emotional difficulties on their own: Moderate. Learning difficulties and dyslexia: not yet tested for yoga, so the overall rating for the guide is Limited.
• Mr BKS Iyengar and the Iyengar tradition: support for the child, courage built step by step, and a breath that is never forced. Geeta Iyengar started a children’s therapy class at the Iyengar Institute in Pune. Known from practice.
• Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr BKS Iyengar, author of Yoga as Medicine: children’s difficulties are not one line on his list of 117 conditions. The nearest lines are anxiety (no. 4), ADHD (no. 7), autism (no. 8), depression (no. 23) and mental developmental impairment (no. 56).

• The research: reviews of mindfulness, yoga and breathing in young people, trials in schools, the large MYRIAD trial, and the few studies of learning difficulties and dyslexia.
• Related guides: anxiety and anger, depression and low mood, stress and burnout, sleep and energy, phobias and strong fears and intellectual disability.
• Take it further: our free ebook Cutting Stress With Yoga, the 2027 masterclass on anxiety, upsets and anger, and youth yoga at Coolalinga.

What are children’s emotional and learning difficulties, and how common are they?

This guide covers worry and anxiety, low mood, anger and behaviour problems, trouble paying attention, and difficulties with learning. Learning difficulties include trouble with reading, writing or maths. Dyslexia is a reading and spelling difficulty. Dyscalculia is a maths difficulty. Attention problems and ADHD are on our list for their own guide, so this page mentions them only where the research touches attention.

In that survey, about 1 in 7 children and teenagers, 14% or about 560,000, had a mental disorder in the past 12 months. ADHD was found in 7.4%, anxiety in 6.9%, major depression in 2.8% and conduct disorder (serious, repeated behaviour problems) in 2.1%. The survey is over ten years old. We found no sourced Australian count for dyslexia or learning difficulties, so we give none. For families, the numbers say one thing: you are far from alone, and there are calm, practical things to add.

Why would yoga help? Not by changing how a child learns to read. It works on what sits around the difficulty: a tight body, a quick breath, a scattered mind and the worry that builds when school feels hard. Yoga poses, pranayama and mindfulness all train the same skill, steady attention. That is the idea behind the research below.

“Do you teach a child to run as soon as it is born? You allow the child to have support whether it can stand or not.”

What did Mr BKS Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar teach about children?

In short: teach with support, build courage one step at a time, and never force the breath. The Iyengar tradition has taught children for decades, including a children’s therapy class at the Iyengar Institute (RIMYI) in Pune. This is known from practice and teacher experience, and no Iyengar trial has yet been done with children. Not yet tested is not the same as wrong.

• Support first. In Astadala Yogamala Mr Iyengar asked whether anyone teaches a child to run as soon as it is born. A child is given support, whether it can stand or not. Props are that support in yoga.
• Build courage. In Basic Guidelines for Teachers of Yoga, Mr Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar advised that if students are afraid of a pose, the teacher asks for the first step only and builds courage in the student.
• Never force the breath. In Light on Life he wrote that nothing pertaining to pranayama can be forced, and that you can never do pranayama with an upset mind. For a worried child, that means an easy breath and rest first.

• The children’s therapy class. Geeta Iyengar started a children’s therapy class at RIMYI, and wrote about it in Yoga Vaani (the Iyengar Yoga Australia journal) in 2000 and 2006 and in Yoga Rahasya in 1999.
• Learning and behaviour. Arti Mehta, an Iyengar teacher at RIMYI, wrote on teaching children aged 7 to 18 with specific learning difficulties, behaviour and emotional problems (Yoga Vaani, September 2006, and Yoga Rahasya, 2007). Hagit Shifroni wrote on combining Iyengar yoga in working with children with emotional problems (Yoga Rahasya, 2007).
• Schoolchildren and tired nerves. Geeta Iyengar noticed that schoolchildren’s headaches often came from tired nerves under the pressure of study. Backbends over a chair gave them quick relief. Read the tension headache guide.

We hold the titles and where these articles appeared, and we are still reading them in full. So here we describe what they cover and no more. Where the Iyengar books speak, we have used them. Where they do not, we say so.

“If the students are afraid to do the asana, then you may just ask them to do the first step of it. Build up courage in the student.”

“Nothing pertaining to pranayama can be forced. That is why it teaches humility.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says

In short: there is no single line for children on his list, but the conditions that sit under this guide are on it. Dr Timothy McCall, an American medical doctor and yoga therapist who studied with Mr Iyengar and wrote Yoga as Medicine, published a list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga in June 2019. Our encyclopaedia uses his list as its backbone and builds on it with newer research.

The nearest lines are anxiety (no. 4), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (no. 7), autism (no. 8), depression (no. 23) and mental developmental impairment (no. 56). Our guides on anxiety and anger, depression and intellectual disability cover three of them. Around 2019 the research on young people was mostly school trials of yoga and mindfulness. Since then, large reviews and the MYRIAD trial have been published, and they are added below.

What does the research say about yoga for children’s emotional and learning difficulties?

In short: reviews found that mindfulness and yoga eased anxiety and stress in young people, with gains in attention and behaviour, and the largest school trial found no benefit at one year. For learning difficulties and dyslexia, almost nothing has been tested, and no yoga trial. None of the trials tested Iyengar yoga, so we call them yoga. Why that matters.

Iyengar yoga trials

No trial has yet tested Iyengar yoga with children for emotional or learning difficulties. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. The Iyengar teaching above is known from practice.

Yoga trials in children and teenagers

These studies tested yoga, not Iyengar yoga in particular.

• Yoga gave better anger control and less tiredness than normal physical education. Khalsa and others, 2012, a randomised trial in a secondary school: students had 11 weeks of yoga (the Yoga Ed programme) or regular physical education. Most measures worsened in the physical education group over the semester, while the yoga group stayed level or improved slightly. Read the study.
• Yoga improved thinking, memory, attention and anxiety in girls with low school marks, more than exercise on some measures. Parajuli and others, 2022, a randomised trial of 89 girls aged 12 to 14 in India: 45 did yoga and 44 did physical exercise. Yoga beat exercise for general intelligence and planning, and both groups improved attention and trait anxiety. Read the study.
• Yoga and exercise both helped, and self-esteem rose in the yoga group. Telles and others, 2013, a randomised trial of 98 children aged 8 to 13 in India: 3 months of daily yoga (breathing, poses, relaxation and chanting) or physical exercise. Total, general and parental self-esteem rose with yoga; social self-esteem was higher after exercise. Read the study.

• A one-off 15-minute yoga video improved anxiety, behaviour and attention scores in preschoolers. Busch and others, 2023, an early pilot of 72 children aged 4 to 6 in the United States, with a comparison group. Read the study.
• A four-week yoga and stress management programme brought large gains in anxiety, depression and wellbeing in teenagers. Arslan and Ardic, 2026, a cluster randomised trial of 120 teenagers in Turkey. The comparison group had a single brief stress education session, so we cannot tell how much was yoga and how much was the weekly sessions. Read the study.
• A school yoga and mindfulness programme lowered anxiety, though not more than in the comparison schools. Bazzano and others, 2022, a cluster randomised trial in an urban middle school in the United States. Anxiety fell in both groups, and the depression difference between groups was not statistically significant. Read the study.

Reviews:

• Yoga gave consistent benefits for symptoms, self-control, thinking and relaxation in children and teenagers. Kerekes and others, 2024, an integrative review of 16 articles and more than 1,000 children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, in schools and psychiatric care. Read the study.
• Yoga trials in children with psychiatric diagnoses covered stress, inattention, hyperactivity, anxiety and depression. Patra and others, 2024, a scoping review of 11 randomised trials from five countries, including Australia. The authors rated the quality of the studies as generally high. Read the study.
• Most school yoga studies found benefits. Khalsa and Butzer, 2016, a review of 47 publications on yoga in schools, mostly from the United States and India. Serwacki and Cook-Cottone, 2012, found 12 school studies, including youths with learning disability and emotional disturbance, and benefits for the most part. Read the study.
• Yoga was no better or worse than other exercise in children. Veneri and others, 2018, a review of 12 yoga studies in children, alongside studies in stroke and multiple sclerosis. Group yoga classes are also social places, which may help. Read the study.

Breathing and pranayama

• Breathing practices lowered stress and anxiety in teenagers across 18 studies. Oka and others, 2025, a review of 18 studies (11 randomised) of pranayama and deep breathing in adolescents. The authors rated the certainty very low and asked for stronger trials. Read the study.
• Slow resonant breathing slowed the breath and calmed the body’s stress response in 12 and 13 year olds, but did not change mood. Michels and others, 2026, a randomised trial of 150 adolescents, with a stress test. The slow breath rate was hard to hold for 10 minutes, and the authors say repeated training may be needed. Read the study.

Slow breathing also calmed children at the dentist in randomised trials. Read the phobias guide. No trial has yet tested a full set of slow pranayama, such as ocean breath (Ujjayi) or humming breath, with children for these difficulties. Not yet studied is not the same as not working.

Mindfulness and meditation

Mindfulness is steady, present attention. These studies tested mindfulness courses, and they count for what a good yoga and pranayama class builds, as explained below.

• Mindfulness programmes eased anxiety, stress and behaviour, and helped attention and planning and self-control, compared with no programme. Dunning and others, 2022, a review of 66 randomised trials with 20,138 young people under 19 (effects from 0.12 to 0.35). Against another activity, only anxiety and stress and mindfulness itself improved. Where there was a follow-up, no significant gain remained. The authors wrote that enthusiasm for these programmes has arguably run ahead of the evidence, and called the quality of the trials low. Read the study.
• Mindfulness lowered anxiety, depression and emotion problems in teenagers, with the biggest gain for anxiety. Zhao and Huang, 2026, a review of 11 randomised trials (612 against 634 teenagers aged 10 to 19) with emotion difficulties: emotion regulation improved (effect 0.43), anxiety fell (0.57), depression fell (0.27) and overall distress fell (0.33). Longer class time went with bigger gains. Read the study.
• Anxiety gains lasted at 3 to 6 months, and faded by 6 months and beyond. Zhao and Huang, 2026, a second review of 11 randomised trials with 9,856 teenagers: anxiety was lower at follow-up overall (effect 0.30), most at 3 to 6 months (0.40) and only 0.09 at 6 months or more. The authors suggest booster sessions and ongoing practice. Read the study.

• Mindfulness showed benefits for some young people, but the pooled result for depression and anxiety was not significant. Carneiro and others, 2025, a review of 13 randomised trials in children and teenagers. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was the most consistent, and the high variation between trials left the overall answer open. Read the study.
• Sitting meditation helped young people’s stress, behaviour and body measures. Black and others, 2009, a review of 16 studies of mindfulness and other sitting meditation in youth aged 6 to 18, many with attention problems or learning disabilities (effects 0.27 to 0.70 for behaviour and mood). Read the study.

The largest trial: MYRIAD, in full

We report this trial plainly. It is the biggest study of mindfulness in school students, and it found no gain.

• A ten-lesson school mindfulness course did no better than normal lessons at one year. Kuyken and others, 2022 (MYRIAD), a cluster randomised trial in 84 schools in the United Kingdom, 8,376 students aged 11 to 14. Risk of depression, social, emotional and behaviour scores and wellbeing were the same as in normal lessons (differences 0.005, 0.02 and 0.02). No harm from the course was observed. Read the study.
• Students already at risk scored slightly worse after the course, and the authors said it should not be rolled out to every student in that format. Montero-Marin and others, 2022, a further analysis of MYRIAD. The differences for students at risk were slight and not big enough to matter clinically, and the course may not suit students who already have symptoms. Gains in mindfulness skills and in planning and self-control were linked with better results at one year, but the course did not teach those skills strongly. Read the study.

What does this mean for a family? A ten-lesson classroom course, given to everyone, is not the same as a young person coming to yoga by choice, with a teacher who watches them and with a parent beside them. MYRIAD says a one-size school course should not be assumed to work. It does not test what a good teacher does with a group of young people. And it shows why we keep practice short, supported and never forced, and why we say: tell the teacher about any worry, and nobody is made to meditate.

Learning difficulties and dyslexia: not yet tested for yoga

No yoga trial has yet tested dyslexia or learning difficulties in children. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. Here is what has been tested, nearly all of it mindfulness, and nearly all in adults.

• Mindfulness cut inattention and hyperactivity in students with learning disabilities, and a breathing device did not. Gabriely and others, 2020, a randomised trial of 73 university students in Israel with attention problems or learning disabilities: mindfulness meditation, device-guided slow breathing or a waiting list. Read the study.
• Reading errors fell 19% after an eight-week mindfulness course in adults with dyslexia or attention problems. Tarrasch and others, 2016, 19 Hebrew readers in Israel, with no comparison group. The improvement came from better sustained attention and less impulsivity. Read the study.
• Children with severe learning disabilities felt more competent and less anxious after mindfulness, and the same in the comparison group. Malboeuf-Hurtubise and others, 2019, 23 elementary school students in Canada, mindfulness against another activity. Read the study.
• A review of yogic breathing and meditation for dyscalculia (a maths difficulty) found promise for attention, working memory and maths anxiety, and no trials. Somanadhapai and others, 2026, a narrative review. Read the study.

Attention is the thread. In these studies, steadier attention went with fewer reading errors. Yoga poses and pranayama train steady attention too, which is why we say they count towards what a class builds. For learning difficulties itself we rest on the Iyengar tradition, known from practice, and say so plainly.

“Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flow into you.”

Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness: how they work together

Most of the studies above tested mindfulness courses, and some tested breathing practices, not yoga poses. That still counts for our classes. Mindfulness is steady, present attention, and yoga poses and pranayama (yogic breathing) are old routes to that same state. So the mindfulness and breathing trials in young people also show what a good yoga and pranayama class can build. No trial separates which part does the work.

We suggest coming to both a yoga class and a pranayama class. Mr Iyengar taught that asana (poses), pranayama and meditation are not divided, and in our experience the two together do more than either alone. See every class time. We trace the history and the links in Yoga And Mindfulness: Why The Mindfulness Research Points Back To Yoga And The Breath.

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Flametree’s regular classes are adult classes. A young person aged 5 to 16 can join a beginner class at Coolalinga, with one adult parent or carer, once we have talked it through. Older teenagers can also come to adult classes with their parents. Everything above points the same way: calm, supported, regular practice.

• Check-in first: arrive 10 to 15 minutes early so the teacher can check the young person in. The regular teachers for these classes hold Working With Children cards.
• Every pose shown and talked through: the teacher demonstrates each pose and describes it step by step.
• A teacher who watches each child: individual tips and lots of encouragement, as the Iyengar tradition teaches, and one step at a time.
• Support: props, such as bolsters and blocks, so a young person feels safe in the pose.
• An easy breath and rest: slow breathing through the nose, never forced, and a supported rest to finish.
• Tell your teacher about any diagnosis, injury or worry. The class is adapted, and nobody is made to meditate or to hold the breath.

• Youth yoga, 5 to 16: how a young person joins a beginner class at Coolalinga, with a parent or carer.
• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See the timetable and book.
• Masterclasses: Yoga for anxiety, upsets and anger, Sunday 18 April 2027, one of our 2027 masterclasses with Chris Lalor, where you learn the supported poses and long, easy out-breath that calm a worried mind. See the 2027 masterclasses.

Read more

• Yoga and anxiety, upsets and anger: the guide for the whole family.
• Stress and burnout, sleep and energy and depression and low mood.
• Phobias and strong fears, including slow breathing for children at the dentist.
• Eating issues, for teenagers and families.
• Yoga and mindfulness: how they connect.

Take it further

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Yoga for children’s emotional and learning difficulties: questions people ask

Does yoga help anxious children?

In reviews of young people, yoga and mindfulness eased anxiety and stress. A review of 66 mindfulness trials found less anxiety and stress, and school yoga trials found better anger control, attention and calm. The largest school trial, of a classroom mindfulness course for 8,376 students, found no gain over normal lessons at one year. In our classes the practice is short, supported and never forced. Read the anxiety and anger guide.

Does mindfulness work in schools?

The answer is mixed, and we report it all. Dunning 2022 found gains in anxiety, stress, attention and behaviour compared with no programme, across 66 trials. The MYRIAD trial of 8,376 students found no gain over normal lessons at one year, and students already at risk scored slightly worse. Reviews found anxiety gains at 3 to 6 months that faded by 6 months, so ongoing practice matters.

Can yoga help dyslexia or learning difficulties?

No yoga trial has yet tested dyslexia or learning difficulties. Not yet studied is not the same as not working. Mindfulness has been tested: in 19 adults with dyslexia or attention problems, reading errors fell 19% after an eight-week course, with no comparison group, and mindfulness cut inattention in 73 students with learning disabilities. For children we rest on Geeta Iyengar’s children’s therapy class, known from practice.

Is yoga better than exercise for children’s behaviour?

Yoga did as well as exercise, and sometimes better. In school trials yoga gave better anger control, planning and self-esteem scores than exercise or normal lessons on some measures, and a review of 12 children’s studies found it no better or worse than other exercise. Yoga adds calm and steady attention to being active.

Can yoga help children with attention problems?

Mindfulness reviews found better attention and behaviour in young people, and a yoga trial in 89 girls with low school marks found better attention and planning. Attention problems and ADHD have research of their own, and we are keeping that for a separate guide. Steady attention is what yoga poses, pranayama and mindfulness all train.

What breathing is safe for children?

Slow, easy breathing through the nose, short and playful, with support. In the Iyengar tradition nothing in pranayama is forced, so we do not teach young people held breaths or fast breathing. In trials, slow breathing lowered stress in teenagers and calmed children at the dentist. Read the phobias guide.

What does an Iyengar children’s class involve?

The Iyengar tradition has a children’s therapy class, started by Geeta Iyengar at the Iyengar Institute in Pune. It is known from practice: poses with props and clear steps, courage built one step at a time, and a teacher who watches each child. At Flametree, the teacher shows each pose, talks it through, gives each young person tips and encouragement, and finishes with supported rest.

How long before a child benefits?

The trials ran 11 weeks to 3 months, and anxiety gains in reviews were clearest at 3 to 6 months. A practical start is one class a week, a few minutes of easy breathing at home, and patience for a term. Some children feel calmer after a single class.

Does yoga change how a child learns to read?

Not directly. Yoga does not teach reading. What it can do is bring stress down, steady attention and settle the body, and in the trials calm practice added to ordinary life eased anxiety and stress and improved anger control. For dyslexia itself, no yoga trial has been done yet.

Can my child do yoga in Darwin, and from what age?

Yes. A young person aged 5 to 16 can join a beginner class at Coolalinga with one adult parent or carer, once we have talked it through. Older teenagers can also come to adult classes with their parents. The regular teachers for these classes hold Working With Children cards. How to join. See the timetable.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala (volume 4), Light on Life (Kindle edition) and, with Geeta S Iyengar, Basic Guidelines for Teachers of Yoga; Geeta S Iyengar, Yoga Vaani and Yoga Rahasya articles on the children’s therapy class, Arti Mehta and Hagit Shifroni (titles read, full texts still to be read). Timothy McCall MD, his June 2019 list of 117 health conditions helped by yoga. Australian figures: Young Minds Matter, the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2013 to 2014, Telethon Kids Institute. Studies as linked above, each looked up in PubMed in November 2026. Everything is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.