Considering ergonomic factors for children at schools

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Considering ergonomic factors for children at
schools

• Students Maryam Bagherazari
• Kosar Roshani

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Introduction

• Ergonomic definition
• Why childrens?
• Why schools?

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Language of ergonomy

• Challenge
• Controls
• Engineering controls
• Administrative controls
• 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

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BACKPACKS

• Challenge
• Design of the bags
• saddlebags or backpacks?
• Maximum backpacks weight

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Person's Weight (lb.) Maximum Backpack Weight (lb.)
Less than 60 3
60 5
60-75 10
100 15
125 18
150 20
200 or more 25
No one should carry more than 25 lb. 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

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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

• Challenge
• two common postures of school-aged youths
• Listening
• 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.

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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?
• 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

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What are the features of a "good" chair?

• 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 - Select the seats that suit the
  tallest and the shortest users
• Stability - Check for the stability of the chair
  a five-point base is recommended.

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Blackboard

• Color of blackboard

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Blackboard

• 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.

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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 900 )
• 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

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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

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Work with Computers Monitors

• It is recommended that the screen is located
• at approx arms 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

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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

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Work with Computers Ergonomic Accessories

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

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Work with Computers climate

• A comfortable temperature range for sedentary
  work is between 210 and 240 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

• Auditory effects
• Nonauditory effects
• physiological effects
• motivational effects
• cognitive effects

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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.

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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
• attention/perception
• 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

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Academic achievement

• Several studies have documented a link between
  noise and academic achievement, 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 children's
  reading skills.
• 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

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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/Noise
  Children.htm

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Thanks for your attention