Posture and attention
| You have been working with a 6-year-old to improve sitting posture. He now has the strength and flexibility to sit erect, and when engaged in an interesting task, he sits beautifully erect for extended periods of time. But his teacher is complaining that he still slumps in his chair when doing handwriting tasks and his parents report that he will only sit erect at the dinner table when there is pasta on the menu.
So what is going on? Perhaps the research by Reilly et al provides some explanation: postural control requires atttentional resources. Reilly DS, van Donkelaar P, Saavedra S, Woollacott MH. Interaction between the development of postural control and the executive function of attention. J Mot Behav. 2008 Mar;40(2):90-102. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2586927/?tool=pubmed The conclusion is that posture is not an automatic reflex activity, but requires attention – and children in the younger age groups (4–6 years) may have difficulty in simultaneously performing a postural task and an attentionally demanding cognitive task. “Are the extraneous movements of younger children in the academic setting, especially those diagnosed with attention deficit disorders with hyperactivity, the result of a deficit of attention or are there other contributing factors? In this study, we provided evidence for an interaction between development of postural control and development of executive attention in dual-task situations. The older children with the more developed postural control and executive attention systems did not experience dual-task interference in either the postural or secondary task, even with an attentionally demanding cognitive task. The younger children, with less maturation of the two systems, experienced postural control interference that increased when the attentional load of the postural task increased. Therefore, early childhood educators should consider that interaction when planning an academic curriculum and creating an environment most conducive to learning. In younger children, an attentionally demanding cognitive task may overload the naturally limited attentional resources, resulting in postural control interference and manifesting as extraneous movements.” So it is not surprising that the child is still slumping when doing writing tasks – and the way to sort out the posture would perhaps be to improve movement control for writing. It is also my opinion (although I have no evidence to back it) that anxiety affects postural alignment. We sit erect when we are interested and supported by the go-for-it neuromodulators (dopamine) providing central drive to the alpha and gamma motor neurons which in turn supports extensor muscle activity. I really need to go and find some support for that idea. Understanding that postural alignment reflects anxiety levels provides a nice read-out for parents. Slumped posture = I am finding this task overwhelming. |
