Lying posture: The back

Physical therapy

﻿Hello, my name is Sophie Brazier, I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you for joining me today. We are going to be continuing talking about posture, but today we will be looking at lying posture and particularly lying posture on your back. So, before we begin, you might want to pause the video to go and get a few things. You may need for later on just some props to help you stay in a supported lying position. So, perhaps you could get a pillow, some cushions, and some blankets, and then we can make a start. I would just like to give you a little message from our team. We, as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. So, you may be watching this as a child by yourself, or you might be with a parent or carer. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. And each lesson we will aim to give you some ideas and activities that can be carried out either at home or in school. You may already have specific programmes that you're using or advice that has been given to you by your child's school or therapist. So, please make sure that you're using any information I'm giving you alongside anything you already have. And if you do have any questions or would like help taming this to their needs, then please make sure you get in contact with your local therapy service. I'm just going to recap why changing position in lying is important. So, changing position is really important for comfort and relief. It can help keep our body parts and muscles in a good position. So, that's thinking back to all those things we taught back in alignment, and it also assists by two processes, such as breathing, circulation and digestion. And if we're changing position and keeping in alignment, then those body processes can all happen really well, and they'll be functioning brilliantly. And the fourth point there is function and independence, and the last point is social interaction and engagement. So, really those four things, if we're regularly changing position and our body systems are working well and we're pain-free, and we're comfortable, then we will be better able to do those things will be better able to engage with our friends, better able to engage in activities and ultimately, give us better function and also promote independence. And that brings us onto a recap of what posture management is. So, posture management is the way in which our bodies are positioned when we're awake and asleep over a whole 24 hour period. So, the way you need to think about it is it's throughout the whole of the day and also throughout the whole of the night. So, it's a guide for you, your parents and carers, to help you stay in a good position and protect the shape of your body. So again, that's really thinking about alignment, whatever position you're in, whether it be lying, sitting or standing, you need to be thinking about alignment. And it also includes the use of specialist equipment, if you're unable to change and maintain different positions independently, and it also promotes a regular change of position, and this is something that's really important, if you just remember one thing from today that it is important, it's a regular change of position. So, now let's think about lying on your back. When you're lying in your back, you want to try and be a symmetrical as possible if you're going to be staying there for a period of time. So then, it's really important to keep that symmetry and to keep that alignment that you're using props to help support your position. So, a little bit later on, I will be showing you some ideas of some props that you can use, and some of them are just things such as pillows, cushions, or blankets. And when we're thinking about lying on our backs, we need to think about comfort, but also thinking about alignment. So, we might be comfortable cards up in a tight little ball, but actually, is that going to be good for our hips or knees or ankles? So, we need to be comfortable, but we also need to be thinking about alignment. So, this is me demonstrating a supported lying position on my back. And you'll see in the picture that I have got lots of support, I've got some support under my head, I'm using a pillow, I have got some support under both of my elbows using some cushions, and I have got a cushion and a rolled up blanket underneath my legs, making my knees in a more comfortable position. So, you might like to try this position using lots of support, or you may want to try different amounts of support to begin with and then try different options. You might like to try this position for the activity that I'm going to describe next. So now, I'd like you to try lying on your back and to start off with, I'd like you to lie on your back and just see how it feels. So you might be lying on your back on a mat or on a plinth or perhaps on your bed. Then, the second thing I'd like you to do is try lying on your back, but using props such as pillows, blankets, that are rolled up to support your position, as I demonstrated. Suppose the video, while you do this and then restart the video once you're done. So, now you've had a chance to just be on a lying position on your back, and you might have tried it just without any props or perhaps with some props and positioning aids. Now I'm going to give you a few ideas, some activities you can do in those positions and maybe ones that are a little bit more challenging or ones that may be a little bit easier for you. So, you can take the level that suits you. So for the first one, you can extend the activity, if you're able, you could try reading in this position with a book supported on your chest. You could combine this activity with sideline position. So you could either do that before or after to mix up changing positions. To make it slightly easier, you could be listening to a story that's being read to you by a parent or carer, or perhaps you could listen to an audio book, and you can just stay here for a short amount of time to start with. And again, as I said previously, you could start off, at the beginning of the week with a really short amount of time in each day at a few more minutes. And then you can build that into your daily routine. And now we've come to the end of our lesson today. So, thank you very much for joining me. Please join me again Soon, the lesson six, where we will be looking at lion posture and lying on your tummy, take care, and see you soon. Bye.

Lying posture: The back

Lying posture: The back

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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