Helping your child develop – Primary age

Over the next few months we’ll be sharing all the information you need to make the right foot care choices through every development stage of your child and provide advice on engaging the whole body through related activities for each stage. Here we look at Primary age children.

Before you know it, it's time for your child to start school. Your child will be wearing their school shoes day in, day out, for up to eight hours a day - that’s 1,280 hours a year! School brings new activities: walking or scooting to school, running around the playground, playing team sports and organised activities which often combine a number of movements and skills. Their feet are becoming stronger and their form is becoming fuller, however when they are on their feet for so long in the same shoes we need to ensure their feet can move naturally to ensure their natural gait, and body mechanics are not inhibited and agility is not suppressed due to interfering shoes.

You could try these activities to help your Primary school child develop:

• Encourage your child to join in a team sport like football, rugby, netball or basketball.
• Teach your child to ride a scooter, this will build strength and balance.
• Go out for country walks or bike rides as a family, with the enticement of a treasure hunt or mini challenges along the way.
• A mini trampoline is a fun way to get active.
• Micro adventures are a great way to encourage planning and physical activity. These are small and achievable overnight outdoor adventures.
• Making and flying a traditional kite is a fun way of encouraging the less active to get out and about to test their new creation.

Primary school shoes :

The older children get, the more style conscious they become, but these days you don't have to sacrifice fashion for fit or function. Start-Rite Primary school shoes look good and comply with school uniform regulations, as well as offering all these important features:

• Whole and half sizes in up to four width fittings from E to H, to ensure best fit.
• A choice of fastenings from rip-tape to laces to make putting shoes on quick and convenient for kids who are in a hurry to get going, or eager to learn to tie their laces. All of which provide plenty of adjustability.
• Durable and supple leather uppers to retain their smart appearance and dyed-through leather, so that scuffs and scrapes are easy to conceal with a good polish.
• Breathable linings for maximum comfort, allowing perspiration to escape through the surface of the shoe.
• Lightweight and flexible soles that have been designed to flex as the foot flexes at the metatarsal joints, so your child’s feet can perform how they naturally need to during every activity throughout the school day. They are also engineered to last the rough and tumble that’s thrown at them in the playground.
• Built-in growing room around the toes, to allow for growth of those developing muscles, ligaments and bones in your child’s feet every school day.

To ensure your child has the correct fitting shoes we recommend measuring their feet every six months.

To read our general tips on foot health click HERE