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W-Sitting Picasso
A few days ago a friend came up to me in music class and asked “so, what’s with the w-sitting?”
She recently read an article in a parenting magazine that said w-sitting was harmful to the hips and knees and limits trunk development. Of her 2 year old twins one was a frequent w-sitter and now my friend was making herself NUTS trying to fix her feet all day long!
I glanced over to my w-sitting sitting daughter playing the drums and gave her my opinion. W-sitting is OK when it is one of a variety of sitting positions – kids should be moving in and out of ring sitting, side sit, long sit, squat and kneeling. Its just fine if w-sitting is part of the rotation.
Now there are times that W-sitting is not ok. I just started treating an 18 month old little guy over the past month who was always w-sitting. In fact, I could easily tell this boy apart from his identical twin brother because of his posture alone. After just several weeks of correcting his sitting position, hands on cues to teach him how to sit up tall and strengthening his trunk with lots of reaching play, he now sits in a variety of positions. The only problem is I can’t tell the difference between the twins now! The point is that in this case w-sitting was a problem. This kiddo would not have developed good postural control if he continued to rely only on w-sitting in addition to the effects on his joints.
Ring Sit
Side Sit
So what sitting options are there other than the big, bad W? Here are a few…
A little of this, a little of that
I like providing something chair-like as an option also. For these little guys, a thick phone book might do.
For kids who need help to use other positions functionally I like a folded towel too. I like the phone book idea. For the kiddos who are going to w-sit no matter what because that is what’s functional for them then I do think a chair is the best option for play rather than affecting the integrity of the joints.
I like providing something chair-like as an option also. For these little guys, a thick phone book might do.
For kids who need help to use other positions functionally I like a folded towel too. I like the phone book idea. For the kiddos who are going to w-sit no matter what because that is what’s functional for them then I do think a chair is the best option for play rather than affecting the integrity of the joints.