Find of the Week: Karen Fakroddin

Special Needs Yoga Instructor

We were meeting Karen in a coffee shop.

While the place was super-busy with office crowd bustling around nervously, Karen was the epitome of calm. Our conversation was easy; Karen talked about how she got involved in yoga from an early age.

Karen was first introduced to yoga by her mum, who still practices yoga at the age of seventy-four.

Karen Fakroddin, M.Ed, RYT, went on to become one of the Chicago area's few certified instructors in special needs yoga. Through the Naperville Park District and Universal Spirit Yoga, she taught classes designed for children and adults whose special needs include ADD/ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and neurological disabilities — using props, visual schedules, and electronic aids to meet each student where they are.

Her advice to teachers, in a talk on adaptive yoga for children, was simple: "Go into their world and teach on their terms, meeting them where they are."

It is exactly the philosophy you hear in her voice over coffee — calm, unhurried, and built on more than 17 years of teaching children. That is why she is our Find of the Week.

This profile is general information, not medical advice. Families exploring adaptive yoga should consult their child's care team.