Influence of deafness in children’s motor development and balance

Abstract

The present study had two main purposes. The first purpose was to investigate the contribution of visual and somatosensory information to postural control in deaf children. The second purpose was to investigate the motor development of deaf children measured through the Motor Development Scale (MDS). Deaf and normal hearing children of the same chronological age were asked to stand on three different bases of support (single-limb, bipedal, and Romberg). For each base of support, the availability of visual information and the quality of somatosensory information manipulated by using a foam surface were combined. Children were also assessed through the MDS. Results related to postural control pointed out that deaf children exhibited a reduction on the time they stayed on the single-limb standing, especially for firm surface. Besides, the manipulation of visual information and the quality of somatosensory information diminished the time that participants stayed on both single-limb and Romberg standings. Relative to the MDS, results showed that deaf children exhibited a smaller motor age than normal hearing children for the temporal organization component of the test.