• This article originally appeared on Android Central and has been inducted into our Back to School guide

Phone grips might seem like an unnecessary add-on — "How could you possibly need help holding onto a phone?" — but I just have a few questions for you. How often does your child drop their phone? How often do you see them hunched over their phone to watch a video instead of propping the phone up and watching at a more natural angle? How often do you see them stretching their fingers out after a long night of texting their friends and sending weird meme selfies? If the answer to any of these questions was "a lot", then do yourself, your child, and your wallet a favor.

Buy them a phone grip. You can even buy them a cool one for less money than pizza night!

A penny of prevention is worth a pound of broken touchscreen

They can make shock-resistant, drop-tested smartphone cases all the livelong day — and they do a great job of it — but nothing beats preventing the phone from falling out of your hands in the first place. That's the first and foremost reason to buy you kid a grip: so that they don't break their phone and make you shell out for repairs or replacements.

I'll take a $10 grip over a multi-hundred dollar repair bill any day of the week, which is why every phone that crosses my desk gets a PopSocket, Style Ring, or some other grip on it the second I'm done reviewing the first case. Whether it's a petit Pixel or gargantuan Galaxy, I have an easier and more reliable time hold onto the grip than I do to a flat-backed case alone.

Phone grips are healthy, even when your child's phone habits aren't

'm something of an introvert, but when out and about in the world, it's hard not to notice the tech — and tech habits — of those around me, especially when they're bad habits I'm still actively fighting myself. I'll find whole families hunched over their phones, teens overextending their thumbs trying to one-hand a text message and propping their phone on their pinky while taking selfies and scrolling Instagram.

I'm not a posture queen by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm painfully aware of the extra strain hunching over your phone or laptop can cause over time. Make all the jokes you want about Blackberry thumb and texting neck but an RSI is a painful and often irreversible thing, something I know firsthand: even years after swapping to phone grips, my left pinky yells at me every day I skip my GrabTab to review a case.

Now, a phone grip isn't going to magically cure your kid's poor posture hunching over the phone, but it can significantly help their hands by giving them something easier and more comfortable to grip. The ability of most grips to double as kickstands can also help improve their poster by allowing them to prop up their phone at an angle rather than hunching over it flat on a desk.

Kick bad habits and poor productivity with phone grip kickstands

Phone stands are awesome, but they're only useful when you have them on you. Since most phone grips double as at least landscape kickstands, adding one to your kid's phone can help make their phone and their homework time more productive since they then have a kickstand with them they can use on any flat surface.

I often reference notes on my phone while writing on my Chromebook, and this is especially helpful when I use phone grips like the Spigen Style Ring POP and Scooch Winback that keep my phone vertical rather than landscape. Kickstands can make looking at a phone easier on your child's neck by lessening their need to hunch over, too, compounding the grip's in-hand benefits.

Phone grips are cool

When your kid sees a phone grip with Darth Vader or Stitch on them, they just see a cool character that they want on all the things. This gives PopSockets a very unique advantage in trying to get your kids to want to use a phone grip, especially now that Swappable PopSockets will allow your kid to swap Darth Vader for the Dark Knight depending on which of their five favorite shirts they're wearing.

Both PopSockets and Speck GrabTabs have Pride collections, too, meaning if your middle or high school has a cause they're behind, they can show it off on their most visible accessory: their phone grip. PopSockets' Poptivism grips even give money to partner charities like March for Our Lives, Girls Inc and The Trevor Project.

So let your kid pick out a phone grip that speaks to their style. Call it a Back To School gift, even though it's healthier for them and extra phone insurance for you.

• Need more phone grip suggestions? Check out the Best Phone Grips for Students

• This article originally appeared on Android Central and has been inducted into our Back to School guide

School is a dangerous environment for most tools and tech, but none more so that phones. Phones are essential items in a phone, always in arm's reach but often bumped, dropped, or banged in the hustle and bustle of changing classrooms or running to meet up with friends at lunch. Phone grips have been a lifesaver for me and my slim fingers, and considering how affordable these ones are, they're well worth the investment.

Why PopSockets win the popularity contest

Now that PopSockets come in a swappable style that allow you to easily swap between styles to match your kid's wardrobe — and can come off for wireless charging, should that be a thing your kid actually uses — the reasons not to use one are becoming few and far between. They're affordable, they're recognizable, and with the Pop Culture collection finally updated to swappable PopTops, they're cool, too.

PopSockets are also as much a toy as they are a tool, and I often pop one of my spares up and down when I get bored during staff meetings, and I'm sure there are some easily distracted kids (like me) out there who could use a fidget toy to help them avoid drifting into a daydream during a lecture.

Kickstands are cool, but you know what's really cool? Vertical kickstands

There's more to a phone grip that in-hand use, though. While most non-fabric phone grips double as landscape kickstands, the number of phone grips that allow you to set your phone upright next to your computer or lunch so you can scroll through Twitter or reference notes while rushing through some last-minute homework are fewer in number and usually larger in size.

The Spigen Style Ring POP and the original Spigen Style Ring are something of the standard-bearer when it comes to phone grip kickstands, but I also adore the Scooch Wingback for its springy metal coil, which works great as a vertical kickstand for most phones and has a satisfying sound when you click it in and out.