What to do now to improve your and your children’s posture

• Adults – especially caregivers, parents, and educators – are children’s most important role models. Everyone working with children can start to pay attentions to their posture when bending, sitting, standing, and walking. Are you curving your back right now?  

• Sit squarely on your butt bones.
  Inside the human body there are two bones at the base of the pelvis called the SITZ bones. Encourage everyone to sit squarely on their butt bones so that they are sitting on the SITZ bones and elongate their spines. Make it a game with your kids; they’ll love talking about their butts at the dinner table!! When sitting on the floor, adults can use a seiza bench, which is a simple wooden bench with a slanted top. Lots of versions are available online.   

• Talk to your children about their posture.
  Encourage your kids to “sit strong” (not weak), “sit tall”, or “sit straight” whenever they sit. That means when sitting on the floor, in car seats, in the stroller, doing homework – and especially while on phones, tablets, and any kind of technology. 

• Use a simple rhyming song to remind yourself and your children.
  Use any melody to remind everyone to sit in the “Criss Cross Sit Strong” position on the floor – you can’t get it wrong!

Criss cross
Sit strong
Straight spine
Sing along

• Allow alternative options for floor sitting.
  For example, the “thunderbolt” position (see picture) is both comfortable and strong: legs folded at the knee and feet directly under the bottom. The back should be straight. Both adults and children can sit in the thunderbolt position. Children whose backs curve while sitting in this position have weak trunk muscles; they need lots of wheel barrow walks and “core strengthening”. (Note: this does not mean each leg sticks out to its respective side of the body – that is called a W-sit, and it is extremely straining on the knees.)  

• Spread the word!
  Please pass along this article to your children’s coaches and teachers! Our goal is that adults who work with children all over the United States switch from using language that encourages misuse of the body to “criss cross sit strong,” which encourages strong posture. Please tell us what suggestions are working for you!
  

Resources

• Small elementary school-age children like the girl in the photo above can sit on a foam ball which can support the bottom (the feet wrap around the ball on either side). 
• For larger children, consider purchasing a foam yoga block or a 1½“ to 2” phone book (tape the sides so that it doesn’t open up).   
• To learn more about posture, visit Jean Couch’s website.
• For another take on this issue, see Crisscross-Applesauce: It’s Time to Move on From This Tradition, by educator Rae Pica.

If you have any questions about posture, please contact us here.

Read Criss Cross Applesauce, No! Criss Cross Sit Strong, Yes! PART 1: Background.

The post Criss Cross Applesauce, No! Criss Cross Sit Strong, Yes! PART 2: Action Steps appeared first on On The Other Hand.

Parents and teachers help guide their children to make healthy food & television choices; healthy posture is just another way that we take care of our bodies.

What is criss cross applesauce? 

If you parent, work with, or take care of kids, by now you probably have heard dozens of teachers, coaches, and even librarians instruct young children: “Please go sit on the carpet (floor/field) in criss cross applesauce.” It is so ubiquitous that we have stopped thinking about the phrase itself. Why are adults asking children to sit like a pile of mushy tan-colored goop? Applesauce may be great for childrens’ insides, but why are we encouraging them to arrange their bones like a pile of mush? When you look at children in the criss cross applesauce position on the floor, what do you see? Do the children look strong or weak? 

Back in the day …

Sitting on the floor on one’s bottom used to be called sitting “Indian style” (clearly racially offensive, this phrase has been replaced), “tailor” position, “legs crossed”, or simply, “set your bottom down.” Regardless of what it was called, children used to sit with two “folds” in their bodies (one at each hip), and their spines looked “straight”. That’s because in a healthy spine, the vertebrae form a column, known as the spinal column. Columns are straight, not curved (think Greek or Roman temple columns). And columns are strong. 

(Boring anatomy note: to be precise, 24 of the 33 vertebrae form a straight column. The sacrum and tailbone form a significant curve that supports the column. There are also three other curves in the spine, but in healthy spines, these curves are minimal, elongating – not rounding – the spine.)  

Rounded, not straight, backs

In contrast, for quite some time now, children have been sitting with excessively rounded – not straight – spines. That means an additional fold in the stomach where they bend their spine. In “modern” spines, the curves have become so accentuated that the term “spinal column” has become somewhat of a misnomer. Improper spinal alignment is so pervasive that we don’t even notice that children all over our country (and even the world) sit with curved backs starting around 3 years old. Unfortunately, curved spines are weak.

Why are curved spines weak? 

Sitting with a curved back puts enormous pressure on the spongy discs that sit between each vertebra, often causing debilitating pain as well as permanent damage. Something like 80% of Americans suffer from at least one debilitating episode of lower back pain in the course of their lives. Many of us know someone who has a “bad back,” or whose back is forever “going out.” Misuse of our backs has made our backs weak. Due to a variety of factors (more on that in another article), American children by five or six often have difficulty sitting comfortably, and safely, on the floor with their legs crossed. Unfortunately, younger children, who at three still are able to keep their spine straight, begin to curve their back when they sit on the floor with legs crossed (see attached picture). Why is this? Posture is learned; children imitate the adults and older children around them.  

What is so great about having a strong back?

Contrary to popular thought, aging itself is not what makes our backs weak. In fact, there still are people all over the world whose backs are naturally strong – that’s because they use their bodies differently than we do. For example, a number of indigenous cultures have straighter, stronger posture while engaged in everyday activities. Take a look at this video of a man with an extremely tall spine carrying a load of heavy bricks. Maintaining a strong back throughout life contributes to joint alignment throughout the whole body, ensures greater strength and flexibility, and reduces the risk of injury in everyday activities. 

So where did the “criss cross apple sauce” name originate?

There is a nursery rhyme with the following lyrics: “Criss-cross applesauce | Spiders crawling up your back | Cool Breeze | Tight squeeze | Now you’ve got the shivers!”

Some guesses about the origin of the name can be found here. According to some elementary school teachers, “criss cross applesauce” and “spoons in the bowl” (hands in laps) initially began as a behavior management strategy. I have not been able to confirm this. But I want to suggest some fixes for the name, including a rebranding.

Why criss cross sit strong makes sense

Because we know that posture is learned, we need to talk about it with children as a health issue, just like we do wearing helmets and seatbelts, brushing teeth, and limiting screen time. Parents and educators bear the responsibility of guiding children to make healthy food and television choices; healthy posture is just another way that we take care of our bodies. Encouraging children to “sit strong” (not weak), “sit tall”, or “sit straight” whenever they sit starts to change awareness and ultimately habits. I have found that when even very young children learn about posture, they understand why it is important and they want their bodies to be strong. 

If you have any questions about posture, please contact me here. Please tell me what suggestions are working for you!  

Quick Links

• Watch this video of a man with an extremely tall spine carrying a load of heavy bricks to see the incredibly strong posture that the human spine is capable of!
• Read about the possible origin of the name “criss cross applesauce” here
• To read the next post in this series, visit Criss Cross Applesauce, No! Criss Cross Sit Strong, Yes! PART 2: Action Steps.

© 2024. Laura Faye Clubok, MS, OTR/L, On The Other Hand Therapy

The post Criss Cross Applesauce, No! Criss Cross Sit Strong, Yes! PART 1: Background  appeared first on On The Other Hand.