Guest Blogger: Ensure your Chid’s Classrom Furniture is Comfortable

Guest Blogger #744, Entry #1744, October 21, 2012

With many different classes spaced out across the day, children have to carry a range of heavy equipment like books and PE kits to school. Recent studies show that their heavy backpacks are putting undue strain on their spines. Up to half of all secondary school children experience occasional backache – suffering with this problem at such a formative age of their development can lead to an increased chance of skeletal issues during adulthood.

Unfortunately, this issue is exacerbated by poor classroom furniture, lack of exercise, poor posture, and obesity. In 2006, approximately 10% of adolescents reported back pain that was bad enough to consult a doctor about, and up to 8% claimed to suffer from chronic symptoms.

Ensure your kids are comfortable in their furniture

Classroom Chairs and Desks

Most classroom furniture is selected based on space and cost effectiveness, not what is good for our children’s bodies. Ill-fitting chairs result not only in physical complaints, but restlessness and low attention spans due to the discomfort.

Ergonomic assessments are required in any office environment, so why aren’t our children receiving the same treatment? Adjustable furniture for schools is crucial, so staff members should look into furniture companies to see how they can improve their facilities. Not only will they improve academic performance, but schools will benefit from fewer students off sick with physical pain. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer.

When desks are low, they are forced into poor posture. Regardless of vast differences in sizes – from the younger Year 7s to the almost adult-sized Year 11s – every chair is the same, unaccommodating fixture. With your child having to sit in the same chair for 6 hours a day, this can have long-term ramifications.

Backpacks

Worryingly, an increasing amount of educational institutions are doing away with lockers, as they see them as a luxury. It’s necessary for children to have somewhere they can securely unload their possessions, so they don’t have to walk from class to class with heavy text books all day.

Earlier this year, it was found that 1,400 pupils were carrying ‘excessively loaded’ rucksacks around Spanish schools. The average child in the UK carries 15-20% of their body weight to school and back every day. Adolescent back pain sufferers are 4% more likely to experience back problems as an adult.

Ensure that your child’s backpack and belongings aren’t too heavy

Backache has affected 95% of the population at some point and costs over £10 billion a year in disability or sickness welfare. A pediatric physiotherapist from Neath Port Talbot conducted a study that revealed referrals based on back pain had increased to 4.5% in March.

Alongside backpack and furniture issues, bad diets and video gaming all day has become the norm for many children. Excess weight promotes very poor posture and leading a sedentary lifestyle has played havoc with the skeletal structure of our kids. Lightening their school bag load, campaigning for more ergonomically effective school furniture, and aiming for a healthier lifestyle are all things parents are going to have to take in hand to protect the wellbeing of their children.

This guest submission was contributed by Lloyd on behalf of Innova Solutions.

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