While many health habits are instilled in children from a young age, such as proper care of teeth and eating well, there are others that aren’t nearly as emphasized. Posture is vital in order for someone to look and feel great. If your children have poor posture, they could be setting themselves on a course for issues later in their life. Here are four tips to encourage better posture in your children.
Lead By Example
As a parent, your children are bound to emulate you, including ways you could be entirely unaware of. If you’re walking around slouching, your children aren’t going to feel encouraged to stand up straight themselves. You don’t even need to be incredibly slumped over in order to have poor posture, either. Just a general slouch can carry plenty of consequences not only for yourself but also for your children, who won’t be able to help copying your behaviors, especially at a young age.
Tell Them About Why They Need Good Posture
Your children won’t want to stand up straight just because you told them to. In their minds, they don’t feel any pain in their backs and will, therefore, believe their spines aren’t in any jeopardy. Explain to them simply how good posture is important for ensuring that they’ll be healthy. You can relate it to brushing their teeth. They should be pleased to know that good posture doesn’t require any additional time or accessories. If they catch themselves slouching, they can simply tighten their abdominal muscles.
Keep Them Accountable
The importance of good posture will only sink in if you make sure your children are constantly aware of it. You could make it a family game to help remind each other to stand up straight. This could be done by teaching ways to positively remind each other. It’s a great opportunity to involve the family as a whole and help everyone work towards better health.
Talk To Professionals
In order to get a full understanding of how posture will benefit your children and yourself, you should talk to an expert, like those at Fulk Chiropractic. They can explain to you exactly what needs to be done to have good posture and the consequences of prolonged slouching. You can also bring your child in so they can get a firsthand understanding.
We hope this has given you a good idea of how to encourage better posture in your children. You can give them a great example to follow and help them in the future. When they are confident and standing tall, they’ll know who to thank.