Juan was always quiet and had never spoken, yet he loved to participate in Lakshmi’s chair yoga class to the best of his ability. Most of his movements were involuntary and when he did move there was a lot of jerking involved. You could tell he was troubled with the involuntary movements and the constant dripping of saliva. Juan always had a smile for everyone! One day Lakshmi was telling the kids a story about the sunflower and the seeds and how the birds loved the seeds and if a seed was lucky enough to get away from the beak of a bird it would grow into a what??? Lakshmi posed this question to everyone, who by that time had all smelled the very big sunflower they were holding. All of a sudden the answer to Lakshmi’s question came from the right of her. “A FLOWER!” Juan spoke and nearly brought the aides, PT’s, and OT’s to tears for he had not spoken for a long time. Everyone believed that the breathing and relaxation techniques that his parents and OT’s worked on with him afforded him the opportunity to speak.
