Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Department of Physical Therapy for Growth and Development Disorders in Pediatrics

Background: Coordination is extremely important in humans' development and makes a significant contribution to physical fitness and health. Children with Down syndrome (DS) experience a lot of troubles from intellectual disability through motor impairment-related to coordination deficiency. Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the coordination components (manual and body coordinations) in children with DS and to compare them between boys and girls. Methods: Fifty boys and fifty girls with DS, aged from 8 to 10 years participated in this study. The coordination skills of those children were evaluated using the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2). Two motor-area composites from the BOT-2, manual coordination and body coordination, were specifically selected for their strong correlation to coordination and motor ability. Results: The study showed poor performance of children with DS in both manual and body coordination. The majority of children lied outside the average range. Regarding manual coordination 68% of boys lied in well- below average range and 32% lied in below average range, while in girls 88% lied in well-below average range and 12% in below average range. Concerning body coordination, 16% of boys lied in well-below average range, 66% lied in below average range and 18% in the average range, while in girls 34% lied in well-below average range and 66% in below average range. Moreover, the results revealed gender difference in favor of boys as they were superior to girls in all measuring subtests. Age equivalent of those children fell in the range of 4.77 to 6.64 years (yrs) in all subtests. Conclusion: It can be concluded that children with DS have motor coordination deficits that are more obvious in girls than boys

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