THE BEGINNING
How Yoga for All Abilities began.
The story begins in 1972, with Sonia Sumar, her daughter Roberta, and a mother learning through love, observation, and daily Yoga practice.
Sonia did not set out to create a method, a school, or an international training program. She was a mother trying to help her child live in the world, feel happy within herself, and grow with confidence.
AT A GLANCE
A mother’s love became a method of service.
The work grew from home, to other families, to Roberta’s school, to Brazil, and then outward through students, invitations, and communities around the world.
What began as a mother supporting her daughter gradually became a living method shared with children, families, schools, therapists, and teachers across many countries.
How it all began
In 1972, Sonia Sumar embarked on a life-changing journey when her daughter, Roberta, was born with Down Syndrome, a genetic condition that can affect development in various ways. Sonia did not begin with a program, a system, or a plan to teach the world. She began as a mother, watching her daughter closely and looking for a way to help her reach her full potential.
Her wish was simple and profound: for Roberta to live in the world with more ease, to feel happy within herself, to develop confidence, and to be supported as a whole person. The method grew from that very human beginning.
Yoga became part of their daily life. Through practice, breath, sound, movement, rest, and presence, Sonia began to witness changes in Roberta's body, attention, connection, and participation. Those changes became the first living lessons of what would later grow into Yoga for All Abilities. Inspired by this experience, Sonia became a Certified Yoga Teacher in 1975.
Roberta as the first teacher
One of the most important threads in Sonia’s book Yoga for the Special Child is that Roberta was not simply the reason the work began. She was also one of Sonia’s first and greatest teachers. Sonia learned by observing what helped, what did not, when to wait, when to adapt, and how to trust the intelligence of the child in front of her.
This is still the heart of the method today. Yoga for All Abilities is not about forcing a child into a shape. It is about meeting the student with respect, offering Yoga in a way the student can receive, and allowing practice to support development from the inside out.
From one child to other families
As Roberta developed, other parents began to notice. They saw that Yoga was supporting her body, attention, confidence, and participation, and they began asking Sonia to work with their children, too. What had begun privately, between mother and child, slowly became a service to other families.
The work then entered Roberta’s school. Sonia began sharing Yoga with students there, adapting the practice to each child and learning from many different bodies, personalities, needs, and possibilities. This was an important step in the development of the method: it showed that the work could support children beyond Sonia’s home while remaining personal and responsive.
Growing through Brazil
From there, Sonia was invited to teach in different cities and states throughout Brazil. Parents, teachers, therapists, and Yoga students wanted to understand what she was doing and how Yoga could support children with additional needs.
In 1980, Sonia opened Núcleo Cultural Sivananda, the Sivananda Cultural Center, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The center became an important home for Yoga study, practice, and the continuing development of the work that would later become known internationally as Yoga for the Special Child and now Yoga for All Abilities.
South America, Portugal, and the wider Yoga community
As the work became more visible, invitations began to come from outside Brazil. Sonia taught in Argentina, including at Mataji Indra Devi’s place, and the work also moved into Uruguay and Portugal. Each place helped the method grow through real students, real families, and real teaching experience.
This growth was never a marketing plan. It happened because people saw the work, felt its value, and asked Sonia to share it with more children and more communities.
The doorway into the United States
A major doorway opened through Swami Satchidananda, the founder of Integral Yoga. Through this connection, Sonia was invited to bring the work to the United States and share it with a wider Yoga community.
Jeffrey Volk became an important supporter of Sonia’s work and of the Method’s growth. He believed deeply in its potential to help many people, including his brother, who had cerebral palsy. His support was especially important in bringing the work to a wider audience: he translated Yoga for the Special Child into English, self-published the book, and helped open the door for the training to spread throughout the United States. Through these relationships, the method continued to travel beyond Brazil and South America.
From there, the work spread through trainings, students, families, and teachers in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
A living mission
The purpose of the work has remained steady: to support children and students with additional needs so they can develop confidence, participate more fully in life, and be met with respect for their whole being.
The book Yoga for the Special Child carries this same personal thread: Yoga as a path of relationship, patience, attention, and faith in the child’s inner potential. The method has grown and developed over the decades, but that beginning still matters. It reminds us that the work is not mechanical. It is human, responsive, and deeply respectful.
What began with one child became a method that could be shared with families, schools, teachers, therapists, and communities. The training programs grew from that same practical root: people experienced the work, saw its value, and wanted to learn how to offer it with care.
Today, Yoga for All Abilities continues through teachers, practitioners, families, and students in many countries, while staying connected to the simple beginning that gave the work its heart.