Parents Beware! This is what gadgets are doing to your kids
- bey0ndM@gz!ne
- November 5, 2021
- Default, Health-Wellness, Kids
- 0 Comments
COVID- 19, the mayhem has led to a third of the world’s population coming under some form of lockdown thereby forcing most of us to work from home. While it does sound relaxing and highly productive, it would probably not be the same with a few tiny (just in size!) colleagues, playing and jumping around.
Many working parents are facing challenges without access to babysitters, play dates and other entertainment avenues that were earlier used to keep children engaged outside the house. This is an even bigger problem in a crampedup space.
As a result, something a lot of parents resort to in order to get some focused work time, is giving their children a phone or tablet to keep them occupied for a few hours.
As per certain studies, before the pandemic, a child was found to spend an average of one to three hours with electronics. Needless to say the number of hours has only gone up during these homebound times.
The aim of the information I am about to share isn’t to send you on a guilt trip but simply to make you aware. Please do look at some of these facts and use them to make necessary corrections before you leave your little warriors with gadgets for extended periods.
A 2017 study suggests that irrespective of age, the most preferred position when using gadgets for an extended period is a semi-reclined one (*7). Parallelly if a sitting posture is made compulsory, most kids and most adults end up slouching over the gadget.
Another study found that just one inch of neck flexion, increases the load of the head by up to six times as compared to if it were in a neutral position (*1). This is known as the text-neck syndrome and can have long lasting effects from pain in the muscles to degeneration of bones and joints in the neck.
The use of tablets increases this angle more as compared to the use of a desktop, and places a higher load on the muscles (2). This difference is mainly because tablets and phones are placed horizontal and below eye level when in use.
Children do experience discomfort in the neck region due to bad posture and the chances of developing musculoskeletal issues are more as they are still in the growing phase (4). Additionally, research shows that there is a direct relationship between the use of electronic devices and musculoskeletal outcomes (5).
Don’t stress. All is not lost. Here are a few basic changes you can make to help you and your children immediately as well as in the long run.
- Avoid holding the device in hands, instead placing them on a table and propping it more vertical reduces the muscle activity and neck flexion angles (3)
- If a table is not available easily, any form of an arm rest while using phone or tablet would reduce the biomechanical load on shoulder and neck (3,6)
- If a sofa is the only option, guide the children to sit further back to place their backs against the sofa back. Place a few pillows on their lap and keep the phone on it (vertical would better)
- Plan frequent breaks that include some moving time like a few jumps, a run or a water break to avoid static postures.
- Time their usage of the device in a day.
“Children have never been very good at listening to their
elders, but they have never failed to imitate them”.
So it begins with you!!
Refrence:
- Neupane, S., Ali, U. I., & Mathew, A. (2017). Text neck syndrome-systematic review. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 3(7), 141-8.
- Straker, L. M., Coleman, J., Skoss, R., Maslen, B. A., Burgess-Limerick, R., & Pollock, C. M. (2008). A comparison of posture and muscle activity during tablet computer, desktop computer and paper use by young children. Ergonomics, 51(4), 540-555.
- Syamala, K. R., Ailneni, R. C., Kim, J. H., & Hwang, J. (2018). Armrests and back support reduced biomechanical loading in the neck and upper extremities during mobile phone use. Applied ergonomics, 73, 48-54.
- Uyal, B. N., Yel, E. B., & Korhan, O. (2018). Musculoskeletal Discomfort Experienced by Children and Adolescents During the Use of ICT: A Statistical Analysis of Exposure Periods and Purposes. In Industrial Engineering in the
Industry 4.0 Era (pp. 121-132). Springer, Cham. - Harris, C. (2010). Musculoskeletal outcomes in children using computers: a model representing the relationships between user correlates, computer exposure and musculoskeletal outcomes
- Toh, S. H., Coenen, P., Howie, E. K., & Straker, L. M. (2017). The associations of mobile touch screen device use with musculoskeletal symptoms and exposures: A systematic review. PloS one, 12(8).
- Douglas, E. C., & Gallagher, K. M. (2017). The influence of a semi-reclined seated posture on head and neck kinematics and muscle activity while reading a tablet computer. Applied ergonomics, 60, 342-347.
