DISCUSSION  

Part 1 of the study showed that community home girls had significantly higher heart rates and lower skin resistance values than girls of the same age who were living at home. Also the visually impaired subjects had significantly higher heart rates, breath rates and diastolic blood pressure values compared to children with normal sight. Part 2 of the study showed that within both categories of subjects (community home, visually impaired) the yoga groups showed significant reductions in breath rates. In the community home group both yoga and games group showed decreases in heart rates. It was interesting to note that the changes in skin resistance occurred in opposite directions for the yoga and non-yoga groups of both categories of subjects. The community home girls yoga group showed an increase in skin resistance, while the games group showed a decrease in skin resistance. The reverse was true for the visually impaired subjects.

Both the community home and visually impaired subjects showed signs of physiological arousal. These results were similar to previous reports on community home boys (Rauhala et al.. 1990) and the visually impaired (Wycherley & Nicklin. 1970). The most obvious difference between the groups was that the community home group had a lower skin resistance than normal and the visually impaired had a higher skin resistance than normal. Both categories of subjects reduced their breath rates following yoga. Visual inspection of the records of both categories of subjects showed that both the Community Home and visually impaired subjects showed more irregular breath patterns than the corresponding control subjects. Fear and anxiety were likely bases for irregular breathing i.e., very rapid and jerky (Ax. 1953; Bloch, Lemuignan, & Aguilera-T, 1991). The fear and anxiety of the community home group were believed to be related to social insecurity, whereas that of the visually impaired subjects was attributed to fear of physical injury in the unfamiliar laboratory setting (Ollendick et al., 1985). Also there was a difference in skin resistance values the community home yoga group showed an increase, whereas the visually impaired yoga group showed a decrease in skin resistance values. This was specially interesting as the community home group had a lower skin resistance to begin with, while that of the visually impaired was higher than the control initially. Hence it appeared that the practice of yoga not only reduced arousal but also served to normalize other functions in both categories of subjects.