A good posture is important

You’ve probably heard someone say that a good posture is important. But what is that exactly and why is it so important? First of all, posture is the body’s alignment and positioning with respect to the force of gravity. Gravity is always exerting a force over your body, wether you are sitting, standing or laying down.

 

A good posture helps you optimize the distribution of that force so that no one structure is overstressed.  

*The sitting position is where most of us get into trouble with poor postural habits. This is especially true when writing, driving or using a computer. As we focus on the activity in front of us we tend to protrude the head and neck forward. Because the body follows the head, the thoracic and lumbar spine tends to round forward as well. When this occurs, the weight of the head and upper body is no longer balanced over the spinal column but instead must be supported by increased muscular energy and placing spinal ligaments on stretch. Over time this leads to fatigue and eventually even pain in the neck and upper back.

 

Sitting and standing with proper postural alignment will allow one to work more efficiently with less fatigue and strain on your body's ligaments and muscles.

Being aware of good posture is the first step to breaking old poor postural habits and reducing stress and strain on your spine. By putting this knowledge into practice one can prevent the structural anatomical changes that can develop if poor posture is left uncorrected for many years.* – The Importance of Good Posture – FRANK J. D’AMBROSIO 

Good habits must be cultivated since early childhood. If the sitting posture when writing, using the computer and driving tend to be the most problematic ones, which one should we focus on with our children? That’s correct, the answer is driving! I’m joking, the answer is writing, and if you couldn’t tell this was a joke, then you should reconsider having children altogether.

 

Jokes aside, it would be incredible tiring, boring, without mentioning nearly impossible to watch your child’s posture every time he or she needs to write something. Yet not doing so can have terrible repercussions on the long run. This is why a Taiwanese company developed Witspal, a smart pen for children (5 years old and above) which aims to correct their writing posture and habits.

To activate the pen, the user must first grab the pen correctly

A motor inside will draw out the tip to write. The tip can be changed between pencil or ink. An infrared sensor located above the screen helps detect and correct the posture of the user. If the user gets too close to the pen it will automatically detract until the posture has been corrected. At the same time, it asses the illumination of the room to make sure there’s enough light to write and read properly. The speaker allows Witspal to verbally correct any problem. This correction is assisted by an icon on the screen representing: posture, grabbing technique or illumination.

 

As you may have noticed already, Witspal doesn’t only correct posture but it also protects children’s eyesight and helps prevent myopia.

By retracting the tip when it isn’t grabbed correctly it can also prevent children from using it to harm others or themselves. Witspal has been developed together with physicians and teachers and it is sold mainly in Asia, where the average time spent writing by children is higher than that in western countries.

 

If you’re interested in this technology and would like to buy it for your child, your students or develop a similar product, you can do so by contacting us, we will be more than happy to help you!