Posture and Purpose -- Toddler Edition

  

                      

 

For this blog post, I picked these three pictures to choose from. These are pictures of my favorite little dude, Paul Michael Tiffany. The first picture is him eating chick-fil-a at the park. The second picture is him playing video games with his daddy. The third picture is him showing off his big bite of a chicken tender. (he's the cutest I know) 

 

 For the continuation of this post, I will focus on the first picture. Paul Micheal is leaning over the table which is causing his pelvis to be in an left anterior tilt. As you can see, he is almost in a kneeling position with his right femur laterally abducted and his right knee flexed. While not very noticeable in this picture, he is sitting on his left femur in a neutral position, with his left knee flexed and the tibia and fibula resting underneath the femur.  His scapulae is protracted and he is rounding his back to exaggerate the kyphotic curve in the thoracic spine. His head is is slightly flexed, but not to the extreme of where it is causing stress on his cervical spine curvature.

The position that Paul Micheal is sitting in is not good for mobility or stability at his age. Being that he is only four years old, he still doesn't have the best trunk control, which allowed him to tip backward at times when his weight wasn't all shifted forward. It would be pretty difficult to get out of this position. His base of support is pretty small due to him leaning forward so all of his weight is shifted forward and is not in the center. His upper extremities are free to move, so he could use them as support to maintain this position. This position does not maintain joint alignment as it places a lot of stress on his thigh and knee as they are maintaining most of the weight. He also could not sit in this sitting position for long, as the bench he was sitting on was not comfortable to bear most of the weight on his left leg and needed to shift frequently. 

It is important to teach proper posture, but especially in children. Developing good posture builds back strength and reduces any health risks later in life. Due to the fact that gravity exerts a force on our joints and muscles, having a good posture will evenly distribute that force throughout the body. Proper posture also goes hand and hand with balance control. Paul-Micheal is getting ready to be on his first soccer team, so it important that he has a good posture to have better balance to kick a soccer ball. 

When working with my future clients, I will have them stand or sit in a chair in front of a mirror to practice good posture. I will also use exercises associated with yoga or pilates to help strengthen back and core muscles.