Children and Technology

It’s the Easter holidays and hopefully the weather is grand and you and the kids are all off outside exploring. However, if April showers hit maybe there is too much time being spent on the tablet or smart phone?

You don’t have to be a Chiropractor to notice the posture of these kids when they are hunched over the glaring screen frantically flinging highly perplexed birds at little green pigs! We know how our “old” spines feel after a day at the office but what are these prolonged postures doing to young malleable spines?

A recent study took a sample of 461 parents with children aged 11-16; 40% of which suffered with neck or back pain. 15% of these parents reported their child’s pain resulted from using technology. The parents also reported that 68% of children spent more than 4 hours per day on a laptop, tablet or phone! NHS guidelines recommend that children should spend at least 1 hour a day doing rigorous activity and this study showed that 48% of parents reported that their child does not meet this recommendation.

We can only hypothesise the effect of modern technology on young spines and how it will affect them in the future as the studies are yet to be complete. But looking at how adult’s posture suffers with prolonged sitting (namely at the desk/PC) we can see that the shoulders have rounded, the mid back is hunched and the head is forward of the spine. This recipe equals upper back pain, neck pain and even headaches.

Chiropractic is good for any age, so please bring your child with you during Chiropractic Awareness Week (13^th – 17^th April) and I will check their postures for FREE.

In the mean time here are some tips to get the kids off the tech:

• Limit the amount of time spent on any device
• Get them more active
• Teach them how to sit properly
• 4 Lead by example
• Seek professional advice if you are concerned