Are Keyboard & Mouse Hazards to your Children?

 

by

 

Michael Rutter

Christa McAuliffe Fellow

 

Speaking Solutions has published this by permission from Michael Rutter and The Daily Herald.

 

Are your children at risk?

 

Millions are.  Currently, 21 million Americans suffer from some form of repetitive stress injury (RSI) including carpal tunnel syndrome.  What is especially troubling to health officials, however, is the ever-increasing injuries among children and teens.  

 

The culprit isn’t lurking among the shadows.  It’s likely sitting in plain sight.  Don’t look further than the trusty keyboard and mouse on the nearest PC. 

 

For the record, one in four adult computer users will suffer from some form of RSI.  With children, since young bodies are still growing, the number is greater.  And the problem isn’t gender friendly since females are three times as likely as males to have problems. Apparently, there is a down side to technology.

 

Perhaps high tech can be hazardous to your child’s health.  A repetitive stress injury can be crippling . . . permanently crippling.  At the least, it can be quite painful and temporarily decapacitating. 

 

Why?  Frequency of usage.  Children are now utilizing a computer’s keyboard and mouse from the time they a very young.

 

Mary, an honors middle school student, noticed numbness in her fingers and wrist.  As the term progressed, the pain got worse.  It got so bad she had a hard time picking up her pencil.  Her keying teacher noticed something was wrong.

 

He suspected RSI and called her mother who promptly got Mary in to see her doctor.  For the next four months, she wore a brace and was banished from keyboard and mouse.

 

“It was quite a shock for her,” her mother commented.  “She’s on the computer all the time at home.   She was playing games and doing educational software when she was three.  She also uses the computer in several of her school classes.”

 

Mary was lucky.  She gained back the full use of her hand.  Nevertheless, long stretches on a keyboard are over.  If she feels the pain return, she slips on her brace and picks up a pencil.

 

Carl, a high school student, wasn’t so lucky.  Long hours playing computer games and surfing the Net, besides programming and English classes in school, caused him to have permanent nerve damage.

 

He was forced to give up piano lessons, which he’s not sorry about.  However, he now writes his English papers in longhand and has his mother key them.  He’s taken up the trombone.

 

While RSI can’t be prevented if you use keyboard and mouse, it can be mitigated.  RSI is something you have to work at.  You have to repeat the same movements again and again.  Some people are certainly more disposed to having problems than others.     

 

No matter how you look at it, RSI results in injury to the nerves and it can be debilitating.

 

A repetitive stress injury can occur with any type of repetitive task.  In days of yore, perhaps twenty years ago, it was an occupational hazard for professional typists and on-line factory workers.  Later, it was associated with computer or word processing folk who worked on a keyboard/mouse for hours on end. 

 

Now that computers have become a necessary part of our everyday lives, more and more cases are occurring.  Indeed, RSI is currently the number one workplace injury in America.

 

RSI was not uncommon among old fashion typists.  The problem today is exacerbated.  Old fashion typing at least allowed the user’s hands to rest.  The typist got an automatic break every time he or she took the old page out and put a new one in.

 

As a result of computer availability, academic demands, terrific software, the Internet, and virtual games so real it’s scary, kids are spending hours and hours in front of a computer screen.   And unlike the old typing days, high tech hands aren’t getting any rest at all.  

 

If RSI can’t be completely prevented, it can be checked.  The major and solution is furniture.  If the monitor, keyboard, and mouse are at the right levels, the odds of RSI are reduced.  Too often at home and school, our kids are using computers on furniture better suited for adults—a one-size-fits-all philosophy.

 

Getting computer furniture adjusted properly, especially at school, won’t happen overnight.  The state of computer furniture in our public school system is appalling.  We’re working on the problem, we really are, but it takes time and money.

 

Meanwhile, until furniture catches up with technology, you can teach your child how to make whatever computer setting he or she is in more user friendly.  

 

Karen Jacobs, President of the American Occupational Therapy Association, suggests that parents need to talk to their children about safe computer practices.  (For information you can turn to www.aota.org.)

 

  1. In your discussion, you might want to discuss the following postulates of good computer posture.  It will not solve the problem completely, but it will help.

 

  1. When you look straight ahead, you should look at the top part of the monitor (you shouldn’t be looking up).  If the top of the screen isn’t at eye level, stack books on the chair until the positioning is correct.  (Bigger, hardbound books, like textbooks, will work the best.)

 

  1. The screen should be about 20 inches away. This is approximate.  For smaller children, this might be about an arm’s length.  If your child is a little older, it might be an arm’s length minus a hand width.

 

  1. Your feet should be planted firmly on the ground. (Make sure the seat is the proper height, first.)  If you can’t put your feet on the floor, put them on a solid box, a stack of books, or a book bag. The feet should be on a flat surface.  This allows the knees to be even with your hips so the small of the back can be supported.

 

  1. Both hands should be slightly above the keyboard when your arms are parallel to the table. It is harmful to rest your hands on the keyboard while keying or key with your fingers slanted up.

 

  1. Your mouse should never be higher than your elbow when your hands are positioned as suggested in #3.

 

  1. Get up and take lots of breaks.  Sitting too long in one position isn’t healthy.

 

  1. If your child feels any kind of hand, wrist, or finger pain, especially numbness, take it seriously.  See your health care provider. 

 

If the workstation is unfriendly, teach your child how to make the suggested adjustments.  Smaller children may need to be physically shown how. At school your teacher should be happy to help your child make the necessary adjustments.

 

Cutting daily strokes where we can and user-friendly furniture will help most of us key longer and happier.   For some, the only surefire way to reduce your risk factor is give up the keyboard and mouse.  

 

And while it will make keying traditionalists bristle, keying with two fingers, since it uses a larger muscle group, is another option (and a much healthier way to key, incidentally).  Many programmers, for example, a very at-risk group, have become two finger typers so they can continue working.

 

The technological future looks bright for RSI victims. Speech recognition software is now very good—and getting better.  Indeed, it will soon augment and replace a great deal of our current keyboard and the mouse usage.  In the next few years, many experts feel the importance of keying and the mouse will diminish dramatically.

 

Incidentally, hundreds of students in Utah County have now learned to voice-type at 140+ wpm at 95% after 7 to 12 hours of practice.  ( For more information you can turn to: www.speakingsolutions.com.) 

 

One day your keyboard and mouse will be antiques.

 

 

Michael Rutter is a Christa McAuliffe Fellow who has authored numerous articles and textbooks.  He teaches English at Provo High School and at BYU.