Reducing Child-Furniture Incompatibility in Primary Schools

ABSTRACT

Background: Considering the amount of time children spend sitting in school, concerns about the consequences of an improper sitting position have been raised.

Purpose: Evaluate the outcome of an occupational therapy intervention implemented to reduce child-furniture incompatibility.

Methods: Repeated-measures design utilizing a within-subject comparison. Teachers’ competence in promoting children’s positioning (N = 14 teachers) and child-furniture incompatibility (N = 171 children) was measured.

Findings: A statistically significant increase in teachers’ competence was measured, as well as a decrease in desk-height incompatibility. Seat-height incompatibility remained unchanged.

Implications: Evaluating the impact of workshops remains essential to ascertain the effectiveness of our interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Occupational therapy
• school furniture
• ergonomics

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to recognize the participation of teachers and students who contributed their time to this study.

The authors acknowledge that preliminary data analysis was presented during the annual Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists Conference in Victoria (BC) on May 31, 2013.