The purpose of the work is to determine the importance of the environment and footwear for the development of the child's foot arch.
For a better understanding and diverse views on the issue of the thesis, we decided to collect data in several ways. Data was collected through an interview with a graduate engineer of prosthetics and orthotics Dejan Tašner, through an interview with the production manager at Ciciban, Boris Petejan, through survey responses of parents of 5-6 years old kids and footprints of 5-6 years old kids.
Through all the above research, we have come to the conclusion that the development of foot arches is more influenced by barefoot walking on natural surfaces than walking in shoes with an anatomical insole. The reason that barefoot walking is better is that walking on grass, stones, sand… stimulates the muscles of the foot and consequently strengthens them, thus forming a beautiful arch of the foot. Footwear with an anatomical insole does not have the function of forming the arch of the foot, its purpose is to give the foot an anatomical bed.
From the analysis of the results, we can see that flat foot is common in preschool children. A flat foot in preschool children is common because the muscles are not yet sufficiently developed. Over the years (up to about age 14), muscles are strengthened and the arch of the foot is formed. What we can do in the preschool period is to buy children comfortable footwear, which we choose according to the recommendations of experts and allow children to walk barefoot.
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