Balance and Coordination Proficiency of Age-Matched Male and Female Children and Adolescents With Intellectual Disabilities.

Male youth (8-18 years) with intellectual disability (ID) demonstrate motor proficiency below age-related competence capacities for typically developing youth. Whether below-criteria motor proficiency also exists for females with ID is not known. The purpose of this study was to determine if sex-specific differences exist in motor proficiency for youth with ID. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency was used to measure motor proficiency: six items for upper limb coordination, seven items for balance, and six items for bilateral coordination. One hundred and seventy-two (172) males and 85 females with ID but without Down syndrome were divided into five age groups for comparative purposes: 8-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, and 17-21 years. Males scored sufficiently higher than females to suggest that sex data should not be combined to established Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency standards for upper limb coordination, balance, and bilateral coordination subtests.

Balance and Coordination Capacities of Male Children and Adolescents With Intellectual Disability.

Children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) exhibit a mixture of cognitive, motor, and psychosocial limitation. Identifying specific inadequacies in motor proficiency in youth with ID would improve therapeutic management to enhance functional capacity and health-related physical activity. The purpose of this study was to initiate descriptive data collection of gross motor skills of youth with ID and compare those skills with competency norms. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2) was used to measure 6 items for balance (BAL), 5 items for upper limb coordination (ULC), and 6 items for bilateral coordination (BLC) of 123 males (ages 8-18) with ID but without Down syndrome. The authors performed 2,840 assessments (10-32 for each item); 944, 985, and 913 for BAL, ULC, and BLC, respectively. Mean scores for all age groups for BAL, ULC, and BLC were consistently below BOT-2 criteria. Overall motor skills of males with ID are below the competence expected for children and adolescents without disabilities.

Measuring joint hypermobility using the Beighton scale in children with intellectual disability.

PURPOSE: To determine the feasibility and reliability of using the 9-point Beighton Hypermobility Score (9-BHS) with youth with intellectual disabilities using a least to most prompting technique. METHOD: One hundred one youth (5-18 years old) enrolled in the study. Two separate evaluations, separated by 3 to 4 weeks, were performed on 25 participants. RESULTS: Ninety assented to the test, and 85 performed all 9-BHS maneuvers. Scores were not significantly different for age and gender, but participants with Down syndrome had significantly higher scores. Test-retest scores showed 80% to 90% agreement (n = 25). Cohen kappa ranged from moderate (0.41-0.60) to perfect (1.0) for the 9 maneuvers, and an ICC of 0.88 was found for total scores. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that the use of the 9-BHS in youth with intellectual disabilities in the manner described is feasible and reliable.