Problems in Balancing Movements of Children with Mental Retardation

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In order to clarify the relationship between problems of balancing movement and visual perception in chidren with mental retardation, optokinetic nystagmus of eye movement, body sway under visual stimuli controlled were investigated.1.Low functioning of optokinetic nystagmus in children with mental retardation was found. The lower the function of optokinetic nystagmus is, the lower the score of balancing movements becomes.2.Body sway measured by a force platform was generally larger in childeren with mental retardation. The larger the sway is, the lower the balancing ability becomes. But in Down syndrome it was found that their sway were rather small although their balancing abilities were seemed very low. It was suggested that measuring head sway was needed to resolve this contradiction.The relationship between balancing movements and behavior regulation were also investigated. Behavior regulation of children with mental retardation was evaluated by Garfield's motor impersistence test. The poorer the behavior regulation was, the poorer was one foot balancing. It was thought that a physical setting that required people to figure out how to maintain their posture using external cues intuitively, worked effectively to improve the balancing movement of children with mental retardation who had showed a poorer level of behavior reguation.