Aparna Sadhale

Motor Proficiency Assessment of Hearing Impaired and Healthy Children: a Comparison Aparna Sadhale

There are more than 250 million people suffering from?Disabling Hearing Impairment?all over the world. It contributes to a loss of over 26 million years of Healthy & productive time of life. Few studies have been done to unmask the motor proficiency problems faced by hearing impaired children. Thus an attempt was made to study motor proficiency skills in Hearing Impaired and Healthy children.180 healthy children were compared with 180 hearing impaired children. They were assessed for their motor proficiency skills using short form battery test of Bruininks Osterestky Test of motor Proficiency. Data obtained was evaluated using, Mann Whitney-U test for comparison between scores in both groups(p<0.0001)and Spearman?s Coefficient for finding co-relation between age and scores in both groups(trend of maturation). The results showed that, Hearing impaired children lack significantly in running speed,agility,balance,bilateral co-ordination activities,upper limb speed and dexterity as compared to the healthy children but they both follow same trend of maturation. This information will be helpful in assessment,treatment,rehabilitation and improving quality of life of hearing impaired children.