An Investigation of Balance Skill Levels in Children with Hearing-Impaired according to BMI and Gender

Abstract

The purpose of present study was to investigate of balance skill levels of deaf children according to body mass index (BMI) and gender. A total of 37 children (24 boys and 13 girls) with hearing impaired from The Primary School for Hearing-Impaired, aged 10-15 years, were participated in the year of 2013. Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2), balance subset with 9 parts was used for evaluation of balance skill. BMI was calculated from measured height and weight scores using the formula weight (kg)/height (m)2. As a statistical method, Independent Samples T-test at the level of α = .05 meaningfulness were performed in SPSS software package. Pearson Correlation was used to investigate correlation between balance skill levels of deaf children according to BMI and gender. Results showed that BMI, age, height, weight and total balance point differences between girls and boys were found insignificant. Also, it was found a significant difference between girls and boys walking forward heel-to-toe on a line test (p < .05). Significance correlations observed between balance skill levels of deaf children according to BMI and gender.