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Are you concerned with your child's posture?

Does your child spend countless hours playing on a phone, doing homework, playing video games, wearing a loaded backpack, or texting their friends? Unfortunately, that’s a reality nowadays and problems with posture are also starting in younger children, something that should concern every parent.

As a parent, you should ensure that your child develops healthy postural habits. In fact, the sooner they learn, the better. Their neck and back will thank you later.

Whether your kid has already started slouching or not, there is no time like now for your children to learn how to maintain their spine straight (literally).

What to look for in your child's posture?

The simple way to catch faulty posture is to see your child's posture in a side profile.

A good posture in the side profile would be ear over the shoulder over the hip, all in a nice straight line. But what you really see in kids today is that they tend to drop backward, round the shoulders, and then their heads drive forward.

5 Amazing tips to improve your child's posture

1. Choose the right backpack

A loaded backpack should never weigh more than 5-10% of a child's body weight. Choosing a backpack that fits will maintain less load on the spine and upper body and help the child use better posture while wearing the backpack.

2. Scheduled Breaks for Gaming Sessions

Getting your kids moving is the key. Kids who exercise daily tend to have better posture than those who have a sedentary lifestyle. Giving your child a daily dose of physical activities gives them the physiologic benefits of movement and helps them avoid getting to the point of frustration.

3. Elevate the Device to Eye-Level

Poor posture is becoming the most prevalent body problem among today's youth. Propping a pillow on your child's lap while using a laptop, tablet, or phone would be a great reminder to keep their body in a neutral position.

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4. Lay on the Floor with Device In-Hand

If your child prefers to work laying on their stomachs or sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall with their legs straight out, you should encourage him as these positions would keep him from being in a faulty posture for a prolonged period.

5. Include stretching exercises before, during, and after their digital media use.

Sharing stretching exercises with your child is a fun way to improve your child's posture and help calm your mind and soul, similar to attending yoga classes.

Our body can speak, too, so don't ignore what your or your child's body is trying to tell you through pain or discomfort.

Ahmed Ragab is a fourth-year student at Cairo University, where he is pursuing a bachelor's degree in physical therapy. He is a passionate email marketer, who helps develop original email marketing strategies.