School OT thoughts

      While following a trail of blog links I came across an article posted on the AOTA website entitled “Everything You Should Know About Ergonomics and Youths, But Were Afraid to Ask“.  Most of us think of ergonomics as an area addressing injury prevention in the workplace; “designing the work environment or conditions to prevent injury and promote health, safety, productivity, and comfort”.  Typically, we think of this area as pertaining to adults and fail to consider the implications with respect to students and the work (occupation) of youths.   The authors present compelling statistics relating to several challenge or potential problem areas as well as tips to prevent potential injury in our youth.

The challenge areas include:

• backpacks
• school workspace
• handwriting
• school computer workstation
• homework space
• home computer workstation
• laptop computers
• video games and television
• fitness
• sports and performing arts

Who would have ever thought there were so many areas of potential hazard in the lives of our nation’s youth and so many ways in which we can attempt to eliminate or minimize the impact of these potential problems?  This article is well worth the read and worthy of consideration for sharing with school personnel and parents.  Happy trails!