Karen Fabian teaching a yoga class for children. Photo courtesy of Karen Fabian

“I began to practice yoga for the first time ever in 1999. And after taking my first teacher training in 2002, I knew I wanted to teach full time,” Karen Fabian says. So she shifted out of her corporate career in health care administration, and started teaching in 2003.

“Over time, I started my own brand, Bare Bones Yoga. And I’ve been doing that ever since.”

These days, Fabian’s work includes teaching yoga to preschoolers, which she’s been doing for 13 years. She ran a program at the South Boston Neighborhood House for two years. And she currently teaches at two programs in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood that are part of Partners Healthcare system.

It’s easy to stereotype yoga as a silent practice done in a quiet room. But that’s not the way Fabian teaches it.

She engages children on multiple levels, mixing yoga poses with language and literacy. It’s familiar territory for Fabian: her mother was a preschool teacher for 35 years.

“Toddlers and four-year-olds, they really like Tree pose,” Fabian says of her youngest yoga students. “Kids, as young as two-and-a-half will do downward dog; it’s a universal pose that kids of all ages will do, even little ones.”

Fabian adds in word-based guessing games – I’m thinking of animal that starts with the letter ‘e’ – as well as music, mindfulness and the freedom that comes from not having to follow the usual classroom rules.

Fabian is also teaching kids the real names of the parts of their bodies – a yoga lesson that adds vocabulary words such as clavicle and patella. And she uses yoga’s lessons in body awareness to talk about what to do when one child bumps into another in yoga class – or in life – and how children can move away or come up with other appropriate responses.

Another part of Fabian’s lesson plan is teaching breathing exercises.

“They learn about different kinds of breathing – it’s a new skill – and then I ask them, ‘how does that feel?’ We take a vote: Who liked the bunny breath the most?” Fabian also asks: Where did you feel it in your body? Do you know where your lungs are? At four- and five-years old, children can identify their physical and emotional feelings.

“My hope is that teachers start to absorb some of this, and they start to see, I can integrate this stuff into the classroom. There’s no reason why I can’t be singing or doing a couple poses.”

Typically, it’s at the end of yoga class that Fabian will bring in language-rich music and books.

“Singing for the little ones is the great unifier. With 12 to 15 three-year-olds, if nobody’s really able to focus, when I start to sing everybody pays attention. It’s amazing to see how the children learn the words and they just sing you know, with every cell in their body.”

Fabian will introduce children to the song “My Favorite Things” from the musical “The Sound of Music.”

“I have really good picture books that give them something to look at and follow along. The first couple of times that I do the song with them, I don’t sing it straight through, I read it like a book, page by page.”

This prompts a discussion about why the lyrics describe someone feeling sad and about what it means to have favorite things. And of course, as Fabian explains, “No one really knows what schnitzel is,” so that’s a conversation, too. She gets children talking about their own favorite things, and how, when they themselves are sad, thinking of these things can make a difference.

“My goal is to give them a coping mechanism.”

Fabian will also be combining yoga and books this spring at the Boston Public Library, where on Thursdays in May she’ll teach Yoga and Storytime classes for children.

One important result of children taking yoga classes:

“Kids tend to blossom, showing their true nature because they’re unfettered,” Fabian says. “I see the movement as a way to soften outer edges and get them primed to be able to express themselves a little more freely.”

What does Fabian want policymakers to know about her work?

“Don’t count out the impact of yoga.” The practice empowers children by helping them stay healthy and identify and express their feelings. Yoga crosses cultural and language barriers: children who are learning English do well, following along and doing all the poses. And children who learn yoga can practice it for years.

“A really important theme,” Fabian says, “is empowering kids and helping them feel independent.”