The effect of hearing impairment and intellectual disability on children's static and dynamic balance

Background and aim: children with hearing loss and children with intellectual developmental disorders have defects in organizing and sensory integration. the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of hearing impairment and intellectual disability on children's static and dynamic balance.methods: this cross-sectional comparative study was conducted on 17 boys with congenital severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss (age 10.54 with sd=2.77), 30 boys with mild intellectual disability (age 10.23 with sd=2.05) and 42 normal healthy boys (age 9.42 with sd=1.79). balance subtest of bruininks-oseretsky-2 test of motor proficiency was used in order to evaluate subjects’ static and dynamic balance. statistical analysis was conducted using spss software through kruskal-wallis test and duncan test.results: the results show that there is a significant difference between groups in static and dynamic balance. (p<0.05), the post hoc test showed that the group with hearing loss and intellectual disability group were significantly different compared to the control group, while no significant difference was observed between hearing loss and intellectual disability group (p>0.05).conclusion: children with hearing loss and intellectual impairment compared to healthy children almost equally showed a lower balance performance and it is required to provide the children with rehabilitation programs to maintain independence.