How To Check Your Child’s Posture

Checking your child’s posture is one of the simplest, yet most important things you as a parent can do to ensure the present and future health of your children. This is an easy assessment that you can do on your child.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to check your child’s posture:

1.     Get your child to stand and face you, get them to close their eyes and walk in place then stop, shake their arms and open their eyes looking straight ahead at you.

2.     Look at their hips- are they directly over the middle of their feet? Are their feet both equally pointing forward or toeing in or toeing out? Are the hips rotated to the right? To the left? Are they tipping to one side?

3.     Look at their chest- is it straight over the middle of the pelvis (hips)

4.     Now look at the shoulders, is one lower than the other? Are they hunched forward? Does one arm hang lower?

5.     Finally, look at their head.  Draw a mental line from the midpoint between the eyes to the center of the upper lip. Is it straight up and down or tilted? Is the head tilted to one side or the other? Is the face rotated to the left or right? Does one eye look lower than the other?

6.     Ask your child to turn around so that you can see their spine- is it straight? Is there a sideways curve to one side or the other? Is one hip higher than the other; is the pelvis twisted or twisted in any direction?

7.     Now ask your child to turn so their side is facing you. Are the ear, shoulder and hip in a straight line to the ground? Is the head forward, or buttocks out backward?

8.     There are three spinal curves when looking from the side. Is there a very deep curve in the lower back (aka sway back)? Does the abdomen protrude? Does the top of the pelvis look like it’s rocked forward? Is the middle and upper back excessively rounded, or very flat? Are the shoulders rounded or hunched? Does the head appear too far forward on their shoulders? Does the curve in the neck appear nonexistent, or excessive?

Whether the poor posture comes from excessive screen time, heavy backpacks, sitting in school all day, lack of activity, pain or weak core muscles, something needs to be done to correct it.

Chiropractors that see many children can examine your child’s posture as well as use several posture analysis tools to determine what is happening with your child. If you performed this postural analysis on your child and found one or more issues, it is recommended that you get your child checked out at the chiropractor.

Chiropractic care can help with a multitude of postural issues and can prevent issues from happening in the future. Call and book an assessment today!