Ergonomics for Kids

How to Keep Your 10-Year-Old from Getting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome at Age 20


By Christina Elston


Watching your little darlings madly cutting down monsters with the Xbox, slouched at the keyboard earning "KinzCash" for their Webkinz, or repeatedly texting their BFF might give you plenty of concerns. Is that game too violent? What about online predators? And what do they charge for texting on my wireless plan, anyway?

What you might not be worried about is a little thing called "ergonomics." Technically, it's a discipline that matches the design of a device - for example, a computer console or a desk chair - to the needs of the user. On a practical level, it often refers to the discomfort - and even injuries - that result when someone spends long periods of time using something that doesn't fit them quite right. It's a term you're more likely to have heard in reference to your computer workstation than to your daughter's new iPhone. But as technological gadgets become small and friendly enough to squeeze into even the youngest kids' lives, these issues increasingly impact children as well as adults.


Sources of Strain


Any activity performed repetitively without breaks, with incorrect posture or ill-fitted equipment puts kids at risk for repetitive-motion injuries, according to physical therapist Margot Miller, a spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association. "These activities often take place during a child's play time," Miller says, including video and computer game time. But these injuries can result from an improper fit between the child and the equipment, from habit or from lack of knowing a "better" way to perform the activity.


For younger kids, most ergonomic stress comes from using video games. In teens, it's a combination of video game and computer use, says Alan Hedge, Ph.D., director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics teaching and research programs at Cornell University.

While overloaded backpacks and book bags can certainly cause injury, they aren't the top concern for most kids, Hedge says. Children are likely to spend much more time at the keyboard or game console than they are lugging their books around. Some kids, he says, spend nearly 20 hours per week in front of one screen or another.


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