Influence of age, sex, etiology, and hearing loss on balance performance by deaf children

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of age, sex, etiology, and degree of hearing loss on the static and dynamic balance performance of hearing impaired children and youth (N = 132), ages 3 to 14 yr. The subjects were individually assessed on Items 2 and 7 of Subtest 2 of the Short Form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. As expected, performance on both tasks improved with chronological age. In comparing the performance of subjects by etiology, only one significant difference emerged; those with genetic deafness were superior on static balance to those whose deafness was idiopathic. However, the mean scores for the genetic group were superior for both balance tasks. The sex of the child as well as extent of hearing loss did not affect performance in either task.