Low muscle tone

THE EPIDEMIC AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY

Low muscle tone is the buzzword of the decade.  What is it, and how does it affect our children?  The official name for low muscle tone is Hypotonia. True muscle tone is the inherent ability of the muscle to respond to a stretch.

Low muscle tone occurs when the tension in the muscles of the body is not sufficient to assume and maintain the child’s posture.  There are two sets of muscles in the body:  the first set , situated close to the skeletal structures of the body, is responsible for maintaining posture; the second set are the superficial muscles, further away from the skeletal structures of the body, which enable movement.  Low muscle tone is a weakness in the first set of muscles, which results in insufficient stability in posture and during movement.  It basically means the muscles are softer/floppier and weaker than they should be.  To compensate the body will increase the size of the superficial muscles trying to give more support in general.  Your kid seems perfectly fine with their muscles - they are strong, they run round with boundless energy, but they have trouble doing things.  As a result some children with low muscle tone appear to have quite an athletic build.  A child experiencing low muscle tone will have to work much harder to compensate for the insufficient tone in the muscles, and for this reason experience tiredness, dislikes motor activities and battle with gross motor skills.  They may for example, be clumsy, be prone to having learning problems, have a poor posture, and poor overall performance could influence their self-esteem. Small babies with low muscle tone often have sucking problems, not only do they tire quickly, but also their co-ordination of sucking, swallowing and breathing is inadequate.

While Occupational Therapy is essential for some children, simply playing would help many children overcome any difficulties they may be having.  In our dual-income society, parents often don’t have time to play with their children.  If this is the case, you need to ensure that your caregivers or after care facilities encourages the children to learn through physical play.  Although learning through mediums such as television and computers might be beneficial to our children, the price to pay is the breakdown of gross motor development.  Children under two should definitely not be watching television!  Remember that we obtained our skills in the afternoons when we were climbing trees and playing outside.  Unfortunately, due to crime and time constraints, our children are not exposed to the same amount of outdoor and physical activities.  The first area of development for children is their physical skills and if this is compromised it effects the overall development of the child and can impact on their ability to learn.  If you are looking for a program for your child, ensure to choose one that encourages fun activities in order to maximize the children’s participation.

We know that children develop faster in their first five years of life.  As a result, encouragement of play from an early age will prevent and overcome possible future problems before primary school age.  The best advice to give to your children is to go and play!

Marlizet is the owner of the KIDI-SPORTZ franchise in Durbanville.