Balance and Coordination Proficiency of Age-Matched Male and Female Children and Adolescents With Intellectual Disabilities

Homogeneity in Motor Competence Among Youths With Intellectual Disability With and Without Down Syndrome

PURPOSE

To determine if there is a homogeneity of scores for youth with intellectual disability (ID) with and without Down syndrome (DS) in 19 test items of motor competence from the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Second Edition (BOT-2). Homogeneity was defined as the means for each of the 19 test items scores by sex and the presence or absence of DS sharing the same population mean.

METHOD

Participants were 622 youth with ID aged 6 to 21 years. Items for bilateral coordination, balance, and upper limb coordination were examined using the BOT-2.

RESULTS

For all 19 BOT-2 items, means between youth with and without DS did not differ from the population mean.

CONCLUSION

These results potentiate the development of expected BOT-2 motor competence scores for youth with ID independent of the presence of DS for clinical practice.

Postural balance problems in people with intellectual disabilities: Do not forget the sensory input systems

BACKGROUND

This pilot study aimed to explore the impact of visual, auditory and vestibular dysfunctions on the postural balance performance in adults with intellectual disabilities. Additionally, a comparison was made between the subjects with intellectual disabilities and a control group concerning static and dynamic balance tasks.

METHOD

Thirty adults with intellectual disabilities and 25 control subjects received a postural balance assessment. Additionally, the experimental group was subjected to a visual, auditory and vestibular screening.

RESULTS

The experimental group performed significantly worse and/or showed more sway compared to the control group for all balance tasks (p < .01) except the timed up and go test. Within the experimental group, a significant positive correlation (r_s (24) = 0.513, p = .007) was observed between the number of failed sensory screening items and the number of failed balance tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest significant involvement of peripheral sensorial deficits in the balance problems that people with intellectual disabilities often experience.

Comparing Motor Competence of Sex- and Age-Matched Youth With Intellectual Disability From Brazil and the United States

Youth with intellectual disabilities (IDs) demonstrate below-criteria motor competence (MC) compared with typically developing (TD) youth. Whether differences in MC exist for youth with ID from different countries is unknown. This study examined the MC of youth with ID from Brazil (BR) and the United States (US) and compared it with norms for TD youth as established by the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2). The authors measured 19 BOT-2 test items for bilateral coordination, balance, and upper limb coordination of 502 youth (BR = 252, US = 250) with ID (6-21 years). Raw scores were converted to %ceiling (percentile of highest expected scores). For all test items, no significant differences were seen between BR and US participants in %ceiling scores. Participants from both countries demonstrated equivalent to slightly below BOT-2 norms in 14 of the 19 test items, with lowest scores seen in contralateral synchronizing bilateral coordination, balancing on one leg, and ball handling.

EFFECTS OF KAYAKING ON MOTOR SKILLS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH DOWN SYNDROME

ABSTRACT Introdução A síndrome de Down (SD) é uma afecção genética que se caracteriza por distribuição numérica inadequada no pareamento cromossômico, com material genético extra relacionado com o par 21 que leva a alterações que afetam o desenvolvimento de diversos componentes motores. Objetivos Analisar os efeitos do treinamento de canoagem durante oito semanas sobre as habilidades motoras grossas em crianças e adolescentes com SD. Métodos Sete indivíduos com SD (10,8 ± 2 anos), quatro do sexo masculino e três do sexo feminino participaram do estudo. Para avaliar as habilidades motoras grossas, empregou-se a bateria de Teste de Coordenação Corporal para Crianças (Körperkoordination Test für Kinder, KTK). O teste de Wilcoxon foi usado para comparar os valores de habilidades motoras grossas antes e depois do KTK e o teste de Mann-Whitney foi usado para comparar os indivíduos por sexo. O tamanho do efeito foi calculado pela escala de Cohen (1977) e nível de significância de p < 0,05 foi adotado. Resultados Os indivíduos apresentaram resultados estatisticamente significativos em todas as tarefas do teste de coordenação motora grossa e o efeito produzido pela intervenção foi moderado. Conclusão Conclui-se que oito semanas de treinamento de canoagem são suficientes para produzir desenvolvimento das habilidades motoras grossas de crianças e adolescentes com Síndrome de Down. Nível de Evidência IV; Série de casos.

Effects of obesity on balance in people with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND/AIM

To know the differences in balance of people with intellectual disability with and without obesity.

METHOD

549 people with intellectual disability were evaluated. Participants were categorized as obese or non-obese according to their body mass index. All participants were evaluated with tests for static and semi-static balance.

RESULTS

There were significant differences in the static balance between obese and non-obese people with intellectual disability. For women, there were not significant differences for any tests; in contrast for men, there were only significant differences in the SLSCE in people aged 37-46 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Significant differences were found in static balance between non-obese and obese people. In the analyses, in consideration of gender and age range, significant differences were only found in one static balance test, in the young adult men´s group. No significant differences were found in women, either in middle-aged adults or in older adults.