Why more children are presenting with neck pain

The team at Purpose Physiotherapy are increasingly seeing young kids present with neck pain. This can be neck pain in isolation or neck pain with referral into the shoulders and arms, or in behind the shoulder blades.

Why?

Exactly! In the absence of a pathology, there are three key factors we are seeing that are common causes: increasing sedentary behaviours, poor posture/body awareness and an increase in gaming and technology. All of which can overlap to some degree.

How do we fix it?

In simple terms, we need to get our kids educated and moving more. Sustained forward head postures with three pillows stacked behind the head whilst gaming for hours on end – this is only going to result in ongoing neck pain, and we don’t want to see this become chronic later in life.

Regulate the amount of gaming being done and set up a more ergonomic environment to do so in, to prevent this excessive forward head posture!

If this is your child… Some specific education and guidance provided by our physiotherapists would be highly beneficial to your kids. We can show you how some simple neck and thoracic stretches, some postural cueing movements and strategies to help break up the time that our kids are spending gaming or in front of the TV.

Small steps = big changes.

Kye Simpson works at Purpose Physiotherapy, a Coledale-based business that has advertised in the Flame's magazine.