Cade's Lucky to Have an OT Auntie Like Me :)

 

Cade being a silly goose! ☻

I would like to introduce my nephew, Cade! He just turned four, and has started his T-ball league games every Tuesday and Thursday night. He is full of energy and loves to play baseball in his uniform. Although, he does make “angels” in the dirt, and he normally crawls to the base acting like a dinosaur. In this blog post, I will be doing an analysis of his posture. As he stands on the base, he shows many characteristics of being swayback. His head is slightly tilted forward and to the right due to his arm and gloved resting on his head. He has a reduced lumbar lordosis and a posterior pelvic tilt. With a posterior pelvic tilt, his hips and knees are hyperextended. The spine is in flexion, and his right scapulae is abducted. There are apparent postural compensations made in this position. Cade has right rotation of the pelvis, which causes the left side to come forward. The spine follows the pelvis into right rotation. The left hip is slightly externally rotated, and the right hip is slightly internally rotated. Cade also has a lateral tilt to the left of the pelvis, which makes the left side go down in comparison to the right. Cade’s spine has lateral flexion to the right. His right hip is slightly adducted while the left hip is slightly abducted.

 Cade’s base of support is small due to his feet being closer together, and his center of gravity is not ideally aligned. This causes for him to have less stability, but he has mobility because he can move his legs to start walking at any moment. Knowing how it feels being swayback, it is more difficult to change out of this position and move quickly. His upper extremities are allowed to freely move and are not being used for support. Cade cannot stay in this position long without needing to shift every few minutes due to putting more additional force on all of his joints.  

Due to his short attention span, it will be hard to explain why he needs to improve his body mechanics and posture. Performing core and leg exercises will help strengthen the muscles and prevent hurting himself. It is important to teach this as early as possible to get rid of bad habits and instill good ones. Proper posture will prevent unnecessary pain due to additional forces on joints, and it can allow for the body to have a better oxygen intake. Educating him about proper body mechanics will allow him to avoid preventable injuries when picking up heavy object off the floor (or me after I fall in the floor from being clumsy). 

When working with clients, I hope to lead by example. I can do this by performing proper body mechanics when picking objects off the floor, and I can show consistently good posture when working with my client. As a practitioner, I do not want to ask my clients to work on something when I am not modeling the correct behavior. Another way I can help my client is by showing them in the mirror. I have never been shown how to properly stand or sit. I feel as though this will help my client tremendously by getting instant feedback from the mirror. This can show them how their posture should look until they can get comfortable with how it feels and do it naturally without thinking.

   Cade and his friends getting ready to field a ground ball.☺

Saylor Wren getting ready to support her big brother at his game! ❤