Body balance analysis of children and youth with intellectual disabilities.
Moderate ID, boy sex and short height each add extra wobble—so flag these kids early and give them balance practice.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched 81 teens stand still on a force plate.
Forty-one had mild intellectual disability. Forty had moderate ID.
Sensors tracked how much their bodies swayed for 30 seconds.
Kids kept eyes open, then closed, while standing quiet.
What they found
Moderate-ID teens wobbled almost twice as much as mild-ID peers.
Boys swayed more than girls at every ID level.
Shorter kids also swayed more, even after age was counted.
All three facts added together; none wiped out the others.
How this fits with other research
Perry et al. (2024) saw the same bigger sway in adults with ID.
Their dancers with Down syndrome swayed less than non-dancers, hinting practice helps.
Diemer et al. (2023) found adults with Down syndrome climb steps slowly and unsteadily.
Together the papers draw one line: balance stays poor across the lifespan unless we train it.
Why it matters
You now have a quick red-flag list: moderate ID, male, short stature.
Screen these clients first for fall risk before gym or job tasks.
Add short balance games to their day; even dance-based moves may tighten sway.
Track progress with a simple 30-second stand test on any force plate or Wii board.
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Join Free →Open your caseload list, circle the moderate-ID boys, and slot five minutes of tandem stand or dance-game warm-ups into their next session.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities (IDs) are an identified group with postural disturbances resulting from a lack of integration among the visual, vestibular and proprioceptive systems. The insufficient level of maturity of the sensory systems is at least partly responsible for disturbances in maintaining body balance. More sway can increase the risk of falls and body injuries. The aims of the study were (1) to compare the ability to maintain the body balance of children and youth with a varying degree of ID, both with the eyes open and closed, and (2) to determine to what extent factors such as sex, level of ID, visual stimulus and body height independently affect the ability to maintain body balance in children and adolescents with ID. METHOD: The study involved 131 people aged 13-21 years (65 girls and 66 boys). The participants were classified as (1) with mild disability (42 girls and 47 boys) and (2) with moderate disability (23 girls and 19 boys), based on IQ test results. Sway measures were collected with the Zebris platform, with the eyes open and closed. Sway path, sway path in anterio-posterior and medio-lateral directions and sway area were analysed. RESULTS: Boys with moderate ID were characterised by a significantly more sway indicating their worse postural balance ability than boys with mild ID, both in the trials with open eyes and closed ones. The type of test (eyes open/eyes closed) to a small extent had influenced the body balance of the examined children with ID. Results of analyses of covariance had showed that all analysed factors (sex, level of ID, type of the test performance and body height), irrespectively from direction of sway (sway path in anterio-posterior and medio-lateral directions), worked independently influencing body balance. CONCLUSIONS: It could be assumed that lower height, moderate disability and male sex are factors significantly reducing ability of maintenance of balance of children and youth with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2019 · doi:10.1111/jir.12671