How To Keep Kids' Backs Healthy While Using Tablets

Today’s children are spending increasing amounts of time with tablet devices. You only need to look around at local cafes or inside family homes and you’ll see little ones hunched over tablets.

In fact we know that children aged 0-8 years are spending just shy of two hours every day with screen media*.

One of parents’ biggest concerns related to young children’s increasing use of tablet devices is related to their physical development.  

Can children’s physical development be hampered by their use of tablets?  

Can tablets cause repetitive stress injuries (RSI) in children?

Not only are parents concerned but so too are physiotherapists, chiropractors and occupational therapists. Whilst we don’t yet have any formal research to confirm these concerns, anecdotally children’s health professionals are reporting that they’re treating increasing numbers of children suffering physical ailments related to over-use of tablet (and gaming) devices.

Some media reports suggested that we are at ‘epidemic levels’ of overuse injuries in children and attributed these to tablet devices. Whilst these headlines are possibly sensationalising the issue, there’s little doubt that children’s physical development can be adversely effected by their use of tablets. There’s a range of musco-skeletal symptoms that can arise from the over-use and incorrect use of tablet devices.

There are three simple things that parents can control to reduce the likelihood that their child may develop physical ailments because of time spent with tablets:

1. Limit Screen Time: The single most important thing that parents can do to prevent RSI-type injuries in children is to monitor and limit their screen-time. Easier said than done I know, but excessive amounts of tablet time is the quickest way for children to form poor physical habits. As children become tired their posture wanes and they tend to slump or contort their bodies in incorrect positions. 
    
2. Get Physical: As a bare minimum children should not be using a tablet device for more than 20 minutes at a time, without a break. Every 20 minutes encourage your child to stand up, jump, run around, wiggle, hop. Anything that gets them standing up and moving. Then they can resume using the tablet if you’re happy for them to continue using it (and they haven’t had excessive screen time already). Getting physical helps to re-calibrate the body and stops bad postures from creeping in (as adults we do this after we’ve spent a long time in front of the laptop). 
    
3. Lie on their Tummies: Where possible encourage your child to use tablet devices on the floor on their tummies (which they often like to do naturally). This keeps their necks in a neutral position.  It also allows them to position themselves directly over the tablet. Alternatively, if they’re sitting up, encourage them to bring the device to their eye level (and not their eyes to the device’s level).

*Common Sense Media (2013). Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America, retrieved: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-to-eight-childrens-media-use-in-america-2013 .

Source : parents[dot]nickjr[dot]com[dot]au