Abstract
A systematic evaluation of child and adult anthropometry was carried out in order to determine anthropometric differences that may impact the design of computer input devices. Hand strength and the anthropometric measurements of shoulder breadth, hand length, hand breadth and finger width were compared among adults and 5, 10 and 14-year-old children. On average, children were 60% the size of adults at age 5 and 86% the size by age 14. The proportional size difference was relatively constant across the anthropometric measurements analyzed. At age 5, there was virtually no overlap in the size distribution between adults and children; by age 10, about 20% of the adult and child population were the same size, and by age 14, about 60% of the adult and child population were similar in size. When comparing hand strength, on average adults were five times stronger than 5-year-old children. The 5-fold strength difference and lack of overlap in the size distributions between young children and adults may have some bearing on the appropriateness of children using adult size devices when they start to use computers in schools.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.