comparing fine and gross motor development in normal hearing children, rehabilitated, and non-rehabilitated hearing-impaired children

Background and aim: motor development is a continuous process throughout life. hearing impairment in childhood may have significant effects on motor development. this study compared the motor development of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired children at early developmental ages. methods: this research was a cross-sectional study. a total of 149 children aged six to eighteen months were selected and divided into three groups: normal-hearing children (nhc) (55 girls and 65 boys) selected by convenient sampling strategy, non-rehabilitated hearing impaired children group (nrhic) (11 girls and 13 boys) selected by purposive method, and rehabilitated hearingimpaired children group (rhic) (3 girls and 2 boys) selected by the census method. the denver developmental screening test 2 (ddst-ll) was used to assess motor development. the obtained data were analyzed by kruskal-wallis, mann-whitney u tests, and curve drawing. results: the fine motor development of the nhc (9.63±28.83) was significantly greater than the rhic (-18 ±26.83) and nrhic (–21.25±30.26) groups, but there was no significant difference between the rhic and nrhic groups. in gross motor development, the nrhic (–32.71±41.26) group had a more significant delay compared to the nhc (13.38±37.73) and rhic (0±21.21) groups, but there was no significant difference between the nhc and rhic groups. conclusion: hearing rehabilitation can partially compensate for the developmental delay in gross skills, but this compensation has not occurred for fine motor skills. the development of fine motor skills requires a precise synergy of small muscles and the nervous system.