Equilibrium Reactions in Normal Children and in Boys with Sensory Integrative Dysfunction

Abstract

Equilzbrillm improves with age and is impaired in children with sensory integrative (5/) dysfunction. While objective developmental tests ofequilibn"um (beam walking and onelegged standing balance) exist. no other objective tests of equlJibn"um as typically evaluated in the clinic are available.

Equilibrium Reactions in Preschoolers

“…Thus, the younger child (below 7 'h years) did not appear as efficient in his or her postural response as the older child. Such results would suggest that equilibrium reactions continue to mature beyond 5 years of age and would be more consistent with the results obtained by Fisher and Bundy (1982).…”

“…The five equilibrium measures used were drawn from standardized one-legged stance tests (Ayres, 1980) and nonstandardized clinical tests of tilting and -reaching (Fisher, 1984;Fisher & Bundy, 1982). The results showed that equilibrium reactions changed significantly with age, but that the tests that demonstrated the greatest change with age and/or were the bestpredictors ofage were not consistentbetween the sexes.…”

“…This would require the use of an objective test that generated scores that changed with age and potentially reflected both the qualitativeand quantitative aspects of equilibrium. However, because various assessments of equilibrium tend not to correlate with one another (Drowatzky & Zuccato, 1967;Fisher & Bundy, 1982), it becomes important to determine the best combination of equilibrium tests for use in the evaluation of preschoolers. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate changes in equilibrium reactions as a function of age as measured by five objective tests: (1) Standing…”

“…Impaired equilibrium reactions have frequently been associated with abnormal motor development in children with cerebral palsy (Bobath, 1971), and with abnormal motor performance in school-aged children with learning disabilities (Ayres, 1972;deQuir6s & Schrager, 1978;Knickerbocker, 1980). Qualitative aspects of equilibrium typically have been evaluated through subjective clinical measures that commonly have included: (1) passively displacing the child by tilting an unstable base of support, (2) passively displacing the child positioned on a stable surface by pushing, and (3) requesting the child to reach for an object to actively displace his or her own center of gravity (Ayres, 1972;Dunn, 1981;Fisher & Bundy, 1982). The therapeutic and experimental literature has lacked clarity and agreement in its qualitative descriptions of the optimal equilibrium response, but generally it has suggested that the following be included in a mature response: (1) increased tone of the downhill extremities with .…”

“…Among the tests that have included objective normative data relative to the equilibrium response in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children are those developed by Miller (1982) and Ayres (1980). Fisher (1984;Fisher & Bundy, 1982) developed criteria to objectively define and score both the qualitative (behavioral response) and quan-1S6 IZRAELEVITZ, FISHER, BUNDY titative (angle score) aspects of several clinical evaluation methods. As part of an initial investigation of these, Fisher and Bundy assessed both qualitative and quantitative aspects of equilibrium in normal children and in boys with sensory integrative dysfunction, ages 5 to 9 years.…”