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Shoes Bad for Kids?
March 8, 2016
Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Kevin Geary, parenting guru, teacher, and author of Revolutionary Parent, a site dedicated to raising physically and psychologically healthy kids, observed in the Washington Post that "...shoes are actually quite bad for children. Shoes destroy feet, preventing proper toe spread, which interferes with the foot's ability to function properly, and prevent proper movement development, which can make children be more susceptible to foot and lower leg injury. The benefits of going barefoot, however, are plentiful.
"One major benefit of allowing a child to go barefoot is that it strengthens the feet and lower legs, making the body more agile and less prone to injury. It also enhances proprioception, the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. In other words, going barefoot helps a child develop body awareness. Geary explains that the nerves in our feet are sensitive (the sole of your foot has over 200,000 nerve endings —one of the highest concentrations in the entire body) for this very reason; they make us safer, more careful, and better able to adapt to the ground beneath us. When barefoot, we are better able to climb, cut, pivot, balance, and adjust rapidly when the ground shifts beneath us, as it does when we walk on uneven terrain, or anything besides concrete and pavement."
Contributed by Zvia Dover
The Wellness Guide for Early Childhood Programs by Sharon Bergen and Rachel Robertson
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Comments (5)
Displaying All 5 CommentsVentura, CA, United States
Loved seeing this article. Our son, 12yrs old, wears shoes 1-2% of the time. He easily hikes on a variety of terrain 5 miles and above barefoot. His hiking boots sit along side his sandals, rarely used. There is alarmist misinformation regarding flat feet (sure not apparent with his arches), diseases and injuries that seem to be propagated in good spirit but more from fear than fact. My point of view could also be ignorant, yet there are signs that this is a strong earth based healthy way to live, barefoot.
CSBC
Denver, CO, United States
I have been saying this for years! When I was 6 years old I contracted polio in one leg. Because I was encouraged to engage in all sorts of physical activities (cycling, dance, games, and so on) and spent most of my childhood barefoot, the impact of the polio has been minimal (I am about to go on my 2 K daily run). In Colorado licensing forbids children going barefoot. If this regulation is so obviously wrong, I wonder how many other licensing regulations and "best practices" are also misguided?
Unemployed
Adams, Colorado , United States
I find it interesting the more we learn, the more we go back to letting kids be kids. What I mean by that is I read an article a while back that said something to the effect of maybe we should bring back the tall slides ( please forgive me but I can't remember where I read the article in but it caught my eye ) because when I was teaching preschool the kids were climbing up and down the slides and I thought , no big deal , they are not hurting themselves and they are working on their gross motor skills. And now this article about children going bare foot, I sometimes think as a society we have worked on making on world maybe too safe for our children .
1955
Akron, Pennsylvania, United States
Great news to hear and spread! Children love to walk in their barefeet and we as parents can be too quick to try and protect instead of empower children to go barefooted.
Thank you for this affirmation!
Spirit Child Yoga and ECE
Aurora, ON, Canada
Woo hoo! As an someone who teaches ECE to students already working in the field this is my message every semester. My students say that Public Health, Fire Regulations, and Mininistry of Ed reps are reasons children must wear shoes all day, even for sleep. I say that is balogna. If people think children, whose feet are formimg (or anyone for that matter) should spend 8 to 11 hours a day in shoes, doesn't know what is best for optimum child development.
Having also worked in both Jamaica and East Africa, where many if the best runners in the world hail from, I observed children going barefoot much of the time. Their agility and strength at young ages would leave our North American children in the dust.
There is also research showing that the good bacteria system on each person's feet is an important part of our immunity system.
There is evidence showing that being barefoot and connected to the earth is a calming and necessary part of being human. Our spiritual well being needs to be considered too.
As someone who also teaches yoga to children, I see their delight when I ask them to remove their shoes and socks. They wiggle their toys and delight in the sensations.
There are myriad reasons to go barefoot for all of us.
Many thanks for highlighting this topic.
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