Therapeutic Yoga for Youth: Child & Adolescent Development, Sensory Integration & Primitive Reflexes
Integrating Developmental Movement, Sensory-Motor Foundations & Primitive Reflexes Through Yoga and Somatic Practices
Therapeutic Yoga for Youth: Child & Adolescent Development, Sensory Integration & Primitive Reflexes
Integrating Developmental Movement, Sensory-Motor Foundations & Primitive Reflexes Through Yoga and Somatic Practices
ACCESS PR-RECORDING on Monday September 14th (Upon Registration)
This experiential workshop explores child and adolescent development through the lens of therapeutic yoga, somatics, sensory integration, nervous system regulation, and primitive reflexes.
Together, we will explore the developmental sequence that lays the foundation for movement, sensory integration, regulation, coordination, attention, and learning—beginning with the early sensory-motor experiences that help organize the developing brain and body.
Participants will be introduced to primitive reflexes and their important role in early development, including how these automatic movement patterns support survival, sensory-motor development, postural control, coordination, and the emergence of more complex movement patterns.
We will explore what can happen when primitive reflexes remain active beyond their expected developmental period and how retained reflex patterns may influence movement, balance, coordination, sensory processing, attention, emotional regulation, learning, and overall nervous system organization.
Through experiential yoga, somatic, sensory, and developmental movement practices, participants will learn practical ways to support the nervous system and create opportunities for greater sensory-motor organization and integration in children, teens, and young adults.
What You'll Explore
- Understanding the developmental sequence of movement and how early movement experiences help build the foundations for later motor, sensory, emotional, and cognitive development.
- The relationship between movement, sensory processing, sensory integration, and nervous system regulation throughout development.
- Understanding primitive reflexes: what they are, why they are important, and how they support early development.
- Exploring how primitive reflexes are designed to become integrated as more mature movement patterns and postural responses develop.
- Recognizing how retained or poorly integrated primitive reflexes may influence posture, balance, coordination, motor planning, sensory processing, attention, emotional regulation, and learning.
- Exploring the relationship between primitive reflexes and the development of midline orientation, bilateral integration, crossing midline, balance, and postural control.
- Yoga and somatic practices that support developmental movement patterns, body awareness, coordination, regulation, and sensory-motor integration.
- Experiential practices incorporating grounding, proprioception, vestibular input, bilateral movement, crossing midline, breath, and embodied awareness.
- Ways to adapt practices according to each young person's developmental level, sensory needs, nervous system state, and individual capacities.
- Practical tools that can be integrated into therapeutic, educational, clinical, and home environments.
Our Approach
This workshop approaches primitive reflex integration within the larger context of the whole developing nervous system.
Rather than viewing retained reflexes as isolated problems that need to be “fixed,” we will explore how development unfolds through movement, sensory experience, relationship, repetition, and opportunities for the nervous system to organize and integrate.
Practices are:
- Developmentally informed and nervous system-responsive.
- Experiential, movement-based, and embodied.
- Accessible and adaptable for a wide range of developmental and sensory needs.
- Grounded in curiosity rather than performance or compliance.
- Designed to support integration without forcing or rushing the nervous system.
- Practical for use across therapeutic, educational, clinical, community, and home environments.
The intention is not to diagnose retained primitive reflexes or prescribe a standardized reflex-integration protocol. Instead, participants will develop a deeper understanding of the developmental foundations underlying movement and regulation and learn yoga and somatic practices that can support those foundations.
Embodied, Strength-Based Approach
This course centers:
- The individual developmental pathway of each child or young person.
- Movement and sensory experience as foundational to development and learning.
- Safety, connection, play, and co-regulation.
- Body awareness and embodied self-awareness.
- Nervous system flexibility and regulation.
- Curiosity, choice, and exploration over compliance.
- Supporting capacities rather than focusing solely on deficits.
- Meeting each young person where they are developmentally, sensorily, emotionally, and physically.
Participants will leave with both a conceptual understanding of developmental movement and primitive reflexes and practical, embodied tools that can be immediately integrated into their work with children, teens, and young adults.
Who This Course Is For
- Yoga teachers and yoga therapists
- Occupational and physical therapists
- Speech-language therapists
- Mental health professionals
- Educators and school-based professionals
- Counselors, psychologists, and social workers
- Children's yoga and movement professionals
- Parents and caregivers
- Anyone interested in understanding how movement, sensory integration, nervous system regulation, and primitive reflexes contribute to healthy child and adolescent development
Course Details
🗓 Saturday, September 12, 2026
⏰ 9:00 AM–12:00 PM Pacific Time
💻 Live on Zoom
🎥 Recording available (if you're unable to attend live)
✨ Registration is now open.
Course Investment
💰 Regular Registration: $165
Your registration includes live participation on Zoom, along with access to the course recording for 4 months, allowing you to revisit the material or participate if you're unable to attend live.
Looking Ahead: Upcoming Public Module
✨ Grief & Loss in Children, Teens, and Young Adults - A Therapeutic Yoga Approach
Saturday, October 24, 2026
9:00 AM–12:00 PM Pacific Time
This experiential workshop explores how grief and loss can be experienced and expressed through the body and nervous system across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Participants will learn developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed yoga and somatic practices to support emotional expression, regulation, connection, and embodied processing of grief, while honoring each young person’s unique experience and timeline.
👉 Click HERE to view details and register for à la carte public modules.
Want to Go Deeper?
You can also explore the full 100-Hour Yoga Therapy for Youth Training & Certification, which brings together all public modules along with additional in-depth learning to support comprehensive, trauma-educated work with children, teens, and young adults with complex needs.
👉 Click HERE to learn more about the full 100-Hour Yoga Therapy for Youth Training & Certification.
Your Instructor
Shawnee Thornton Hardy is a yoga therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Ayurvedic wellness guide, and somatic touch facilitator. She is the founder of Embodied WellBeing Yoga Therapy, Asanas for Autism and Special Needs, and Yoga Therapy for Youth, and brings over three decades of experience working with diverse populations across all ages and stages of life. Her work is devoted to supporting children, teens, and young adults with neurodivergence, sensory processing differences, and complex needs—while also guiding the professionals who care for them. She is deeply passionate about helping individuals reconnect with their inner child through her trainings and offerings, supporting healing, play, and a return to authenticity.
With a deeply integrative and somatic approach, Shawnee weaves together yoga therapy, sensory integration, Polyvagal-informed practices, Somatic Experiencing, and embodied awareness to support regulation, resilience, and authentic expression. Her work is rooted in the understanding that behavior is communication, and that healing happens through safety, connection, and the body.
Shawnee is the creator of the C.A.L.M.M. Yoga Toolkit and Body Sensations Curriculum, and the author of Asanas for Autism and Special Needs and Yoga Therapy for Children and Teens with Complex Needs. She leads trainings and workshops internationally and serves as faculty for yoga therapy programs, mentoring practitioners in developing compassionate, inclusive, and effective approaches. She has been featured in numerous magazines, online publications, and podcasts.
Her teaching is both practical and deeply human—bridging science, lived experience, and heart-centered care. The root of her teachings is inclusion and accessibility. Through her courses, Shawnee invites you into a way of working that honors the nervous system, respects individuality, and supports meaningful, lasting change.
See her Website Here