The effect of hearing impairment and intellectual disability on children's static and dynamic balance

Children with hearing loss and children with intellectual developme­ntal disorders have defects in organizing and sensory integration. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of hearing impairment and intellectual disability on children's static and dynamic balance.
This cross-sectional comparative stu­dy was conducted on 17 boys with congenital severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss (age 10.54 with SD=2.77), 30 boys with mild intellectual disability (age 10.23 with SD=2.05) and 42 normal healthy boys (age 9.42 with SD=1.79). Balance subtest of Bruininks-Oseretsky-2 test of motor proficiency was used in order to evaluate subjects’ static and dynamic balance. Statistical analysis was conducted usi­ng SPSS software through Kruskal-Wallis test and Duncan test.
The results show that there is a signi­ficant difference between groups in static and dynamic balance. (p0.05).
Children with hearing loss and int­ellectual impairment compared to healthy chil­dren almost equally showed a lower balance performance and it is required to provide the children with rehabilitation programs to main­tain independence.