Why is muscle tone so important in children?

By Dr Karli Plowright
Nomad Chiropractic Mosman
(Family Wellness Chiropractor + Exercise Scientist)


What is muscle tone?

Muscle tone is the resistance in a muscle. Tone is present from birth and is important in all aspects of development. It can also tell us about tension in your child's body, and is tested at rest because it’s a passive indicator. ie. it’s not an assessment of muscle strength. Muscle tone protects the joints to help rescue injury risk as children develop. Muscle tone helps reduce the chance of muscle injury, neck or back discomfort and spinal joint stress. Good muscle tone helps to keep the joints of the spine in optimal alignment which helps to support and assist with proper joint development.

Below are 4 reasons why muscle tone is so important in children:

  1. Muscle tone is the indicator of effective development in our children.

    Good muscle tone is the basis to achieve appropriate development, especially through progression of gross and fine motor skills such as rolling, hopping, skipping even through learning to write and learning a new skill.

  2. Muscle tone helps with confidence and ability with skills that require balance, coordination and proprioception.

    This helps to ensure your child can feel safe when trying a new skill, new surface and new height, which helps improve brain development and gross motor skill developement!

  3. Muscle tone supports posture/alignment, which helps with proper biomechanics of the body/joints.
    This helps your child to be more upright by having a strong support around the hips, pelvic, shoulders and spine

  4. Good muscle tone in early months and years of life is crucial in the development of the lower limbs

    The most important stage for good development of the hips, knees and feet (to encourage opening of the body - straightening of the legs and good ankles - rather than flexed birth position) is 0-3 years old


Is your child stiff? Does your child have too much tone? Is your child floppy? Does your child have too little tone? Are you concerned about your child hitting their developmental milestones? Are you just generally unsure about your child’s tone? Click the link below to book an assessment with one of our chiropractors here at Nomad Chiropractic in Mosman. Karli Plowright, Sandy Ghobrial and Lucy Bartlett are your Mosman Chiropractors who can assess your child’s muscle tone.


Got questions? Get in touch!

Till next time,

Chiro Karli

Nomad Chiropractic in Mosman has a pregnancy and paediatric focus as your Mosman Family Chiropractic clinic.

Your local chiropractors are Kristin Webb, Olly Kerr & Lucy Bartlett
Online bookings are available here
Located at: Suite 1, 563 Military Rd Mosman NSW 2088 (Rear entry)
Phone/SMS us at: 0491 064 117
For more baby related information please head to our blog here
Reasons to have your baby assessed by a chiropractor

*Please note: Karli Plowright is no longer a practitioner at Nomad Chiropractic in Mosman as she has relocated to WA in December 2022. All practitioners in the clinic are, however, educated in this field.