Abstract:

The article discusses the problem of the sitting posture in students aged 7-13 in Poland. For the purpose of this paper, the results of studies carried out using the author’s two diagnostic tools were used: “The Profile of Graphomotor Skills” (PGS) (Domagała, Mirecka, 2010, 2023) and The Chart of Assessment of Graphomotor Skills (CAGS) (Domagała, Mirecka, 2017, 2023).

Empirical studies using the PGS were carried out entirely by the authors of the paper in a group of 300 primary school students of grades 1 – 6 (children aged 7-13 years, equinumerous groups of boys and girls). During the test the investigators observed the behavior of students and noted down their observations in individual Observation Protocols. The Observation Protocol comprises 7 categories of the assessment of graphomotor activities: I. The dominant (guiding) hand; II. The way of holding the writing instrument; III. The dominant hand arrangement; IV. The auxiliary hand; V. The position of the page/sheet (in relation to the edge of the desk); VI. The sitting position; VII. The pace of graphomotor activities. The sitting position was correct in 13.4 percent of students. At particular levels of education the percentage of pupils maintaining the right sitting position varied: from 8% to 18% at individual education levels. Altogether, the best results were achieved by first-grade students, with a decline being gradually reported as far as grade 6. In grade 6 as many as a 100 percent (!) of boys adopted an incorrect sitting position. It is a problem that increases at particular education levels. The studies were carried out as part of the scientific project “Writing Communication Disorders. The Profile of Graphomotor Skills as A Technique of Diagnosing Children Aged 7-13. The Development of Graphomotor Skills – A Dysgraphia Risk” (Ministry of Science and Higher Education; NN 106 188533).

The next tests enabled detailed identification of problems regarding the sitting posture (the positioning of the student on a chair, the positioning of the torso and the head). Empirical studies using CAGS were conducted in compliance with the detailed guidelines of the authors in a group of 975 primary school students of grade 1-6 by trained diagnostic analysts in the framework of the normalization of the tool in the Laboratory of Psychological and Pedagogical Tests in Gdansk. The proper positioning on the chair was reported in a total of 70 percent of the subjects, with predominance of girls. The most frequent deviations were as follows: the body insufficiently leaned against the back of the chair, sitting on the chair’s edge, leaning against the desk, feet not supported. The lowest scores were obtained by students in early grades. The position of the head and the torso was correct in 62.1 percent of the students, with a predominance of boys. The percentage of students maintaining the correct position of the torso and the head varied at particular education levels – from 55% do 70.3%. Somewhat more frequent are the deviations concerning the position of the torso (prevailing in grades 1-4) than the head (prevailing in grades 5-6).

Keywords:

Handwriting, graphomotor skills, sitting posture.