Cornell University Ergonomics Web

Keeping Kids Healthy

Kids need to learn healthy habits for working at a computer. These habits will protect them from injury through their working life.

Parents play a crucial role in helping kids acquire healthy habits for computer use. Parents can follow the MVP approach:

• Manage computer use time - time can fly by when you're working or playing at a computer so parents should monitor how long the computer is used and try to limit continuous use to blocks of no more than 30 minutes before you encourage your child to briefly do something different for a few minutes. Taking frequent short breaks allow the muscles to recuperate and this avoids fatigue-related injuries. You can download software to help remind you when you need to take short rest breaks and it is also a good idea to do some simple stretching exercises to do to reduce fatigue in these breaks.
• Vary the activities that kids do to use different muscle groups - encourage children to use computers in different ways so that effort is shared by different muscle groups, for example, teach children keyboard shortcuts that can be used instead of constantly using a mouse, teach children how to use voice-activated software so that they can alternate typing and speaking to the computer. Teach children to change their body positions periodically. Every 30 minutes your child should briefly stand up, walk around and rest the muscles used in typing and mouse work. Encourage children to look at objects at different distances, for example, looking out of a window for a few minutes allows the eye muscles to rest.
• Posture during computer use is especially important - help your children to sit and work in a relaxed, neutral posture. Teach children to change their body positions periodically. Every 30 minutes your child should briefly stand up, walk around and rest the muscles used in typing and mouse work. Encourage children to look at objects at different distances, for example, looking out of a window for a few minutes allows the eye muscles to rest.

For further ergonomics information on children see:

• School Ergonomics Program
• Guidelines for Parents
• Children's Computer Use
• Ergocomics 4 Kids
• Healthycomputing for Kids
• Ergonomics for Children and Educational Environments
• Ergonomics4Schools
• Watch you back - a spinal workout

Swedish translation available courtesy of Valeria Aleksandrova