The effect of a psychomotor education program on the static balance of children with Intellectual Disability.
Children with Intellectual Disability (ID) demonstrate lower balance ability which results in substantial delays in motor growth and limits their function level.Psychomotor education comprises a holistic movement approach, with aim to improve all aspects of each child personality. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a psychomotor education program on static balance of school aged children with intellectual disability (ID) Twenty children with ID, 8 12 years old participated in the study. They were assigned to two groups, one experiment and one control. The experiment group attended a 16 week psychomotor education program at a frequency of 2 lessons per week, for 45 minutes. All the children participate in the above measurements: 1) recording of anthropometric characteristics, 2) assessment of motor developmental index and 3) measurement of static balance. The static balance ability was measured by means of an electronic pressure platform. Participants were request to maintain their balance under 4 different conditions: double leg stance with eyes opened or closed, while they object a visual or visual auditory target. Participants of the intervention group reduced the values of static balance variables for all the positions. In conclusion, findings of this study clearly indicate that psychomotor education program has an important contribution to make for the most benefit of children with ID in terms of static balance.
Journal of strength and conditioning research