Examination of the Motor Ability of Children with Down's Syndrome
1988 Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 33-49
Details
1988 Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 33-49
The Physique (2 items) and the Motor Ability (17 items) of 170 children with Down's Syndrome, ranging from 0 to 12 years of age, were measured for three years and the results, examined from the longitudinal aspect, allowed the following conclusions to be reached.
Physique:
1) The average body weight of children with Down's Syndrome is lower at the age of one, than the national average of normal children of the same age, but the ratio of their growth is the same as that of normal children.
2) The growth of the average body weight of the former becomes less rapid at age two than at age one. However, when they are three years old growth again becomes the same as that of normal children and continues thus until the children are six years old.
3) The Koup Index of children with Down's Syndrome shows that they begin to become fat at age seven and this tendency continues though adulthood.
Motor Ability:
1) As far as measurement of gross motor ability, regarding both the energy systems and cybernetics systems, is concerned, children with Down's Syndrome can be divided into two groups: those who have rapid development and those who have less rapid development. Some of those who have rapid development, however, suffer some decline in their motor ability in proportion to their fatness.
2) The balance ability of children with Down's Syndrome is lower than average, and the motor ability with balance ability as its primary factor is also low.
3) Children with Down's Syndrome take more time to perform complex movement in which many actions are combined into one motion than do average children, also requiring more time to change from one action to another.
4) Children with Down's Syndrome find difficulty in adjusting themselves to a given rhythm.
5) Generally speaking, slow children are reported to have less flexibility than their peers, but children with Down's Syndrome who were the subjects of our study showed much flexibility. This question of flexibility is to be examined in detail later.
