The Relationship Between Balance and Fine Motor Skills in Children With Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Children with intellectual disabilities (ID) have problems in adaptive behavior and developmental areas, including cognition, language, social interactions, and motor skills. Among motor skills, fine motor skills and balance are crucial due to their role in child-environment interactions, learning, physical activity, and play. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between balance and fine motor skills in children with ID. Methods: The present study was a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. Participants in the study were selected by non-random method, 80 children (4-7 years old) with ID were selected from special school and occupational therapy centers in Arak City, Iran. Data were collected through Peabody developmental motor scale edition 2 (PDMS-2) for the fine motor skills area. Bruninks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency (BOTMP) was used for balance. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to determine the correlation between variables. The significance level was considered to be P≤0.05. Results: The results showed that 60% of the participants were at a low level in terms of balance skills, 60% in terms of visual motor integration (VMI), and 47.5% in terms of grasping skills. Spearman correlation coefficient was used to measure the relationship between VMI, grasp, and total score of fine motor skills with balance, which showed a significant relationship between balance and these variables (P≤0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed a strong relationship between fine motor skills and balance in children with ID.