Adapted Spiral Praxis
Special Needs Training
Course Overview
For Parents and Caregivers
This course consists of three modules designed to teach parents and caregivers the fundamentals and key principles of working with one child with special needs, such as Autism, developmental delay or Down Syndrome.
Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3 |
|---|---|---|
Oct 17 - Nov 28 | Jan 9 - Feb 20 | Mar 27 - May 8 |
This program is designed to provide parents and caregivers with basic, effective activities to work with one individual at home. It is meant as an introduction and is a pre-requisite for our official training and certification program, which will begin Fall 2026. The aim of this program is to help parents and caregivers open a new world of regulation, motor learning, and body awareness for your child (or adult) with special needs, meeting and solving any challenges and difficulties that may arise.
Each module lasts 7 weeks with weekly online classes taking place every Friday at 8:00 pm EST (Saturday 10:00 am AEST). The course is a highly interactive format where everyone will share their particular experience through the curriculum. In addition to partaking of class discussions, participants will be asked to create weekly objectives for their children and keep a video journal of their child’s progress. Every participant will have access to our WhatsApp community where they can share their child’s progress and ask questions.
What is Adapted Spiral Praxis?
Adapted Spiral Praxis is a new bodymind-centred paradigm for motor learning and development. It was developed by founder Yuji Oka to help children with special needs learn how to connect with and use their bodies, and to discover flowing, independent movement. Originally, this special needs curriculum was developed at the Positive Education Program (PEP), Ohio’s largest mental health agency. The program was so successful that the administration at PEP conducted a clinical study of the movement program and found that it greatly accelerated the children’s motor progress. It has subsequently evolved over 30 years and has helped thousands of children with special needs gain more awareness and control over their own bodies.
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The ASP program emphasizes a flow learning approach where learning is performed in developmental stages, starting from the ABCs of movement and leading to more open-ended improvisational structures. By keeping kids in their flow learning zone, ASP can often help children dramatically improve their motor aptitude by allowing them to progress through their own particular learning styles. The aim of ASP is to help children with special needs develop a natural, independent way of learning that focuses on their gifts, rather than on fixed, repetitive patterns.
How is the Course Structured?
​​The ASP Special Needs Training for parents and caregivers is structured into 3 modules. Though each individual class will draw directly from participant experiences and shared videos, each module will explore different concepts from the full ASP curriculum in an easily accessible and immediately applicable way. Topics of discussion will include relaxation, regulation, movement, yoga, sequencing, and creativity, among many others.
The first module will begin with relaxation and regulation as the foundation of learning, and will have a general emphasis on individual movement skills and yoga poses, serving as a foundation for subsequent modules. All these skills are also modified using space, time, energy and partnering variations to really deepen and enrich the child's learning experience.
In the second module, we will explore how to deepen a child's understanding of movement and yoga by sequencing individual skills together. This means yoga poses will become salutations, and individual movement skills will become chains of movements, requiring a deeper cognitive engagement. We'll explore how to break down these sequences to make them more easily understood and learned, deepening a child's movement understanding.
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​The third and final module will explore the rich world of creativity and dance. You will learn how to incorporate creativity into your interactions with your child, and help them access their innate creative instincts and interests. We will explore how to find stillness and flowing movement, and discuss open-ended cognitive activities involving groups of friends. How creativity expresses is unique for each student — but it can even find its form in choreography and dance!
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To register for this parent and caregiver course, which begins Oct. 17, 2025, visit the button below.
Note: Participating in the parent and caregiver support course is a pre-requisite for joining the Level I Adapted Spiral Praxis training and certification program, beginning Fall 2026. The certification is essential for those who aspire to work with children with special needs using Adapted Spiral Praxis.
Financial Support
Please reach out to us if you are experiencing financial difficulty and cannot afford the program. We offer discounts for eligible participants. Contact us at info@adaptedspiralpraxis.com.