Effects of Sensory Integration and Manipulation Activities on Postural Control and Eye-Hand Coordination in Children With Down Syndrome

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effects of sensory integration and manipulation activities on eye-hand coordination and postural control in children with Down syndrome. The study subjects were 6-year-old children who were diagnosed with Down syndrome and showed overall developmental delays. As an intervention, sensory integration and manipulation activity protocols were implemented in a total of 10 sessions of 60 min once a week. A shortened version of the Bruninks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2 (BOT-2) was used to measure children's motor abilities, a grooved pegboard was used to evaluate coordination abilities, and sensory processing abilities were evaluated using a Sensory Profile. For motor ability, 0 points were received for all items in the pre-assessment, but 1 point was obtained in the origami item and 1 point in the walking along the line item, showing a change of 2 points in the total score. In terms of coordination ability, the subject was able to place all 10 pins in 10 min for the left hand and 5 min 16 s for the right hand, which improved compared to the pre-evaluation. In sensory processing, the overall score was lower in the post-evaluation than in the pre-evaluation. By applying sensory integration and manipulation activities to children with Down syndrome, our findings suggest that they had a positive effect on eye-hand coordination and postural control.