Long hours of sitting at poorly designed tables and chairs can cause chronic back and shoulder pain later on in our children's lives. Sylvia Thompson reports.
Getting children to sit quietly at their desks when they return to school this week will be one of the biggest challenges facing teachers.
Settling down to lessons will be no easy task after the freedom of movement most children have enjoyed over the long summer holidays.
Freedom of movement is something that comes naturally to children, as does good posture, according to experts of movement, such as yoga teachers and teachers of the Alexander Technique.
However, these same experts claim that once children start school, their freedom of movement can become over-restricted and long hours of sitting at poorly designed tables and chairs can lay down postural problems that can resurface as back, shoulder and other chronic pain conditions later in life.
The dropped shoulder phenomenon caused by heavy school bags, routinely carried on one shoulder only, is an ongoing issue, but the idea that children are simply making an attempt to improve their posture when they tip their chairs or sit with one leg bent under their bottoms is a more radical suggestion.
Alexander Technique teacher Richard Brennan has been campaigning the Department of Education and the Department of Health to alter the design of school chairs.
"Most of the school chairs are badly designed in that they have a lumbar arch slope of about 20 degrees in a backward direction. This means that children are asked to sit on chairs which are sloping backwards, yet they have to sit forwards to do their school work," he says.
Most children, Brennan believes, tilt their chairs forwards to compensate for this or place their foot on the seat to allow them to use their hip joint rather than their pelvis when sitting.
"When children sit on chairs which slope backwards, they are bending the spine when they bend forwards rather than the hip joint as they are supposed to.
"I believe this is costing the Department of Health a huge amount of money in the long term with one in two adults suffering from back problems at some stage. All for the sake of schools buying decent chairs for the children," he says.
Brennan also believes the flat tables children now work at are less ergonomically suitable for them than the old style school desks which sloped forward.
Brennan moved his son, Ciaran (12), to another school over the issue.
"I could see that he was starting to hunch his shoulders and he was complaining of headaches and neckaches. The school that Ciaran currently attends encourages children to make little cushions which are now tied to their chairs to compensate for the backwards tilt in the seat of the chair."
More expensive, better-designed chairs are available from school furniture manufacturers, but most schools continue to opt for the cheaper ones when budgeting for school furniture.
In terms of movement around the classroom, the Primary School Curriculum introduced in 1999 has made great strides in its child-centred approach to learning.
"Children now have more scope and more permission to move around the classroom and there are more areas in the classrooms for them to move into, for example, reading, nature and play areas, but the school furniture itself really needs to be looked at," according to a primary school teacher who has recently qualified as an Alexander Technique teacher.
However, as with most things, the theory is only as good as the practice and individual teachers differ hugely in how they interpret a curriculum which advocates the freedom of movement of children in classroom learning.
Discipline issues will also infringe on a teacher's ability to allow freedom of movement.
Children's yoga teacher, Orla Punch, believes five-minute stretches at the end of class periods would help correct any poor posture developing throughout the day.
"Children are sitting for five to six hours a day in a forward bend position. The opposite to this is a backward bend which opens up the whole body and arches the back.
"You simply can't tell children who have been sitting for long periods of time to stop slouching. The only way to bring them back to neutral correct alignment is to include back bends and twists in their daily routine," she explains.
Punch believes simply sitting down and standing twists and, if possible, lying down back stretches would help enormously.
For better body awareness, children could also stand with their head, shoulders, back, bottom and heels touching the wall and see what it feels like.
The body will correct and memorise the position in this neutral posture, which can then be applied to sitting and standing for periods of time.
"I see children from the age of seven who are already developing stiffness in their legs and spine from the chronic contracting of muscles brought on by leaning over their desks all day. This constant bending forwards can also lead to disc problems later in life," she adds.
Punch is currently working with a Montessori school with the aim of incorporating a yoga mat into the classroom set-up. The children would then be able to do a few stretches on the mat when they felt like it throughout the day.
Scheduling daily bouts of physical exercise on the timetable and encouraging active games at break times are perhaps easier options for primary schools.
Also, a more creative integration of movement into some subjects, such as maths, would be helpful. For instance, there is some evidence to suggest that children can learn their tables faster if they recite them while carrying out synchronised movements.
And so to the heavy school bags.
The quality of the school bag and how it is carried are crucial factors. Generally speaking, bags carried on the back across both shoulders distribute the weight better than those slung across one shoulder.
Many parents feel their children need to be given more direction from teachers on a daily basis regarding which books they can leave in school and which are required for homework.
"One problem is that the new tables and chairs don't allow any storage room for books," says Fionnuala Kilfeather, chief executive of the National Parents' Council for primary schools.
"But the most important thing is that the teachers and the parents need to look at the number of books children really need to take home from school each day.
"Schools also need policies about school bags. Some school bags are simply not healthy for the children to be wearing on their backs," Kilfeather warns.