Considering ergonomic factors for children at schools

Students: Maryam Bagherazari Kosar Roshani

Introduction Ergonomic definition Why childrens?

Why schools?

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Language of ergonomy

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Challenge

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Controls

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Engineering controls

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Administrative controls

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Work practice controls

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Engineering controls

eliminate the hazard (problem) at the source

Administrative controls

decisions made by occupational therapists, teachers, school administrators, and parents or caregivers to reduce the duration, frequency, and severity of exposure to existing hazards. They leave the hazards in place but attempt to diminish the effects on the youth

Work practice controls

self-directed, self-initiated strategies used to ensure safe and proper techniques when doing activities 4

BACKPACKS

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Challenge

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Design of the bags

: • saddlebags or backpacks?

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Maximum backpack’s weight:

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Person's Weight (lb.) Maximum Backpack Weight (lb.)

3 Less than 60 60 60-75 100 5 10 15 125 150 18 20 200 or more 25* *No one should carry more than 25 lb.

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Engineering controls

• Select backpacks on the basis of the youth's size and age.

• Look for wide, padded, adjustable shoulder straps.

• Choose backpacks with several compartments for better weight distribution.

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Administrativ controls

• Monitor the youth's posture when wearing the backpack.

• Ensure that the youth carries only the items required for that particular day • Provide youths with information on alternative types of backpacks, such as a backpack on wheels and The Back Balancer • Limit material and books that need to go home • Issue a second set of books for the home • Purchase books that are bound in sections 8

Work Practice controls

• Position the backpack below the shoulders and resting on the hips and pelvis • Pack heavier items close to the body • Stay fit and healthy.

• Use both straps • Replace heavier items with lighter alternatives (e.g., a plastic lunch box instead of a metal one).

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Bench & chairs

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Challenge

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two common postures of school-aged youths

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Listening

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Writing and reading

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Engineering controls

• Use multiple sizes of furniture, especially in a middle school, where youths have a wide range of body sizes • Reduce nerve pressure and discomfort with a footrest or book under the feet. • Use a rolled-Up towel or a small pillow to create a lumber support with an angle of 100 or 110 degree. 11

Administrative controls

• Ask youths about the comfort of the chairs and desks at school.

• Advocate for ergonomically designed furniture or modifications to current furniture to the local Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or school administrators.

• Allow youths to choose furniture for themselves from the school's existing supplies.

• Become more knowledgeable in proper body mechanics to teach and instruct youths in healthy postures.8

• Use verbal instruction, visuals, and repetitive practice tasks when teaching the use of proper body mechanics to accommodate different learning styles. This information may help youths to work more effectively in a classroom setting that does not have ideal seating.

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Work Practice

• Use proper body mechanics, such as turning the body as a whole.

• Keep frequently used supplies within reaching distance.

• Take brief breaks between activities and stretching breaks before, during, and after an activity.

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ergonomic chair

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Why is finding the right chair so important?

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What do you need to know about selecting a good "ergonomic" chair?

 One chair does not fit everyone  Collect data about the user's body height  No one chair is suitable for every activity  Consider maintenance and repair costs 15

What are the features of a "good" chair?

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Adjustability

Check to see that seat height is adjustable.

Seat height range

Check whether the seat height can be adjusted to the height recommended for the worker(s) who will use it. Other chairs may have to be selected for very short or tall workers. •

Backrest

Check to see that the backrest is adjustable both vertically and in the frontward and backward direction. •

Seat depth

shortest users Select the seats that suit the tallest and the •

Stability

Check for the stability of the chair; a five-point base is recommended.

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Blackboard

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Color of blackboard

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Blackboard

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Position of blackboard

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Computer workstations

Two factors that can contribute to the development of RSIs ) repetitive strain injury) • poor workstation design, including inadequate lighting, inappropriate furniture, and poor workstation layout. • poor work habits, including poor posture and sustained periods of computer use. 19

Work with Computers: Work breaks

Where the job does not provide adequate breaks through task variety, it is recommended that short frequent breaks should be taken during periods of intensive computer use, i.e. 2-3 minutes every 20-30 minutes. These breaks should include whole body movement. For example, fatigue in the back is relived by standing up and walking around.

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Work with Computers: Posture

• The feet are supported on the floor, or a footrest (if knees are at greater that 90 0 ) • No pressure caused by the front edge of the chair seat under the thighs • The upper body is upright with the lower back firmly supported by the backrest • The shoulders are relaxed and not hunched • The elbows and upper arm are close to the body • The head is upright or slightly inclined forward with minimum of strain on the neck • Forearms are horizontal and the wrists are straight when the fingers are on the keyboard 21

Work with Computers: Chairs

• Stable (a 5 star base) • Adjustable height range suited to the desk • A stable, independently adjustable backrest • Freely moving castors when used on carpet or glides for use on a hard floor surface • Armrests are not recommended as they are likely to interfere with the ability to move the chair close enough to the desk.

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Work with Computers: Desks

• Height adjustable desks are the preferred option. • For a fixed height desk: between 680mm and 720mm • The minimum work surface area: 1500mm x 900mm and the maximum bench thickness – 25mm • The volume of leg space: minimum of 800 wide x 550mm deep x 580mm high • The viewing distance to work: between 350 mm and 780 mm • No sharp edges, protrusions or rough surfaces • It is recommended that work surface be continuous due to increase mouse usage, keyboard and mouse are on the same level 23

Work with Computers: Monitors

It is recommended that the screen is located • at approx arm’s length away from the user • Directly in front of the user • Eye level and the bottom can be read without a marked inclination of the head • No glare and reflections 24

Work with Computers: Mouse

To minimize fatigue when using the mouse: • Place the mouse on a mouse pad to restrict the area of movement for the hand and arm • Ensure the mouse is used with a straight wrist • The mouse pad should be placed as close as possible to the keyboard to avoid over-reaching with impact on shoulder/neck muscles 25

Work with Computers: Ergonomic Accessories

Consider the following when trying to address the ergonomic issues • A footrest • Document holder • Monitor stands • Screen filter 26

Work with Computers :climate

• A comfortable temperature range for sedentary work is between 21 0 and 24 0 C.

• The optimum range of relative humidity is 40 50%. Relative humidity below 20% can cause dryness of the eyes, nose, throat and build up of static charges. Humidity above 80% can cause fatigues.

• Draughts around the neck and the feet can cause muscle contraction.

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How can you "fix" your computer workstations?

One of the ergonomic factors schools need to consider is that students come in a variety of sizes and shapes and computer workstations at school are most often "one size fits all." Of course, even if the computer workstations at your school are woefully ergonomically incorrect, there's probably no money to adapt or replace them. The real question is: What can you do with what you have? The answer? More than you think! In many cases, you can "fix" your computer workstations -- and your students' bad habits -- without spending a cent!

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Noise

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Auditory effects

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Nonauditory effects

 physiological effects  motivational effects  cognitive effects 31

Auditory effects

The investigations undertaken so far show that

environmental

noise exposure does not have an effect on hearing threshold levels of children, with the exception of exposure to noise from extremely low flying military aircraft. However, taken into account the very high noise levels present during 24 hours in mega-cities, research in this area might show hearing impairment in children associated with these very high noise exposures. Given the high noise emissions of specific toys and equipment, some noisy activities may impair the hearing of children.

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Nonauditory effects : Physiological effects

• Elevated blood pressure levels in school-aged children is associated with living or going to school near a major noise source.

• These elevated blood pressure levels are of concern for two reasons.  the levels do not habituate with continued exposure  elevated pressure levels in children appear to continue this pattern into adulthood thereby increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. 33

Motivational effects

Research findings suggest that exposure to uncontrollable noise may make children more vulnerable to learned helplessness. Learned helplessness means that the individual learns that the outcomes of it's behavior are independent of the actions of the individual.

Most of this research has been with school aged children, including kindergartners.

Teachers in noisy schools also report greater difficulty in motivating children in their school work. Children often had less tolerance for frustration.

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Cognitive effects

• Most of the research on the nonauditory effects of noise on children has been on cognitive effects. 

Memory

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attention/perception

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academic achievement.

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Memory

The research on

memory

and noise for children parallels that of adults; there appears to be little or no effects of noise on simple memory. This holds true for both chronic and acute exposure to noise. However, if the memory task requires special attention there does appear to be some negative effects of noise. In other words, if the individual has to pay particular attention because of the difficulty of the task, noise may interfere with the memory task.

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Attention/perception

• • The research on

attention

suggests that children exposed to chronic noise may suffer deficits in this area. Children exposed to chronic noise seem to develop cognitive strategies for coping with the distracting effect of noise. Young children (5 years old) from noisy residential environments seem to be better able to tune out distracting auditory stimuli when asked to perform a discrimination task in a noisy environment than children from quieter homes. Four year old children from noisy day care centers performed better under noisy conditions than children from quiet day care centers. These young children seem to be resistant to the distracting effects of noise because they tune out the noise. Noise seems to interfere with children's ability to discriminate between meaningful auditory stimuli, especially speech. Background noise, in particular irrelevant speech, interferes with children understanding the spoken word. This may have particular implications for children's academic performance 37

Academic achievement

• Several studies have documented a link between noise and

academic achievement

children's reading skills.

, in particular reading. Acute noise appears to have little long term effects on reading or other intellectual activities; however, the research indicates that chronic noise has a negative effect on • A recent study by Evans & Maxwell (1997) identified a link between chronic noise exposure and reading. This finding suggests that there is selective screening out of auditory stimuli by children in chronic noise settings.

Another possibility is that speech is used differently in noisy settings than in quiet settings and children miss learning certain language skills. Nevertheless language skills related to speech seem also to be related to reading skills. It is worth noting that the attentional research also found that noise interfered with children's discrimination of speech.

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Conclusion

Chronic exposure to noise has been shown to be harmful to children of various ages. It can have especially detrimental effects on younger children when language and discrimination skills are forming.

Sometimes major noise sources are not in the control of teachers or designers. However, as this study documents, sometimes the noise source is the design of the spaces. Designers should keep in mind the use of the spaces they are creating. In child care centers, spaces must allow for the fact that children need to make noise but the subsequent noise levels should not be harmful to them or others in the center.

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color

studies have indicated that the colors in a classroom can affect how students behave and perform .

When discussing color with school districts, it is important to approach color choices as functional color rather than from a standpoint of aesthetics .

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Impact of color

The following are the results of the variety of tests conducted on the impact of color in the environment.

• Relieves eye fatigue • Increases productivity and accuracy • Aids in wayfinding • Supports development processes 41

Guidelines for academic environments

• Preschool and Elementary school prefer a warm, bright color scheme that compliments their natural extroverted nature .

• Cool colors are recommended for upper grade and secondary classrooms for their ability to focus concentration.

• Hallways can have more colored range than in the classroom and be used to give the school a distinctive personality.

• Libraries utilize a light green creating an effect that enhances quietness and concentration.

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Resources

• http://asumag.com/ • http://www.educationworld.com/ • http://schools.becta.org.

• http://www.aota.org/index.asp

• http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/default.htm

• http://www.ergonomics4schools.com/index.htm

• http://www.spine-health.com/topics/topics01.html

• http://education.umn.edu/kls/ecee/default.html

• http://www.designshare.com/Research/LMaxwell/NoiseC hildren.htm

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Thanks for your attention

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