Developmental Patterns of Static Balance Ability and Their Relation to Cognitive School Readiness

Developmental patterns of static balance ability in children at ages 5 to 9 years were assessed by using a technique of electronic ataxiametry, consisting of the measurement of body weight displacement by pressure transducers, mounted to four footplates, each to bear one heel or toe part. The obtained fluctuation and weight displacement scores for various postures, none lasting more than 20 seconds, turned out to correlate significantly with teacher's evaluation of school readiness, basic arithmetic skills, and reading achievement in samples of normal school children (one kindergarten, two first grades, two second grades, and one third grade; total, 206). Girls who were prococious in static balance ability in relation to boys tended to show higher within sex group correlations between equilibrium control and school and reading readiness. A sample of 33 undifferentiated educationally handicapped pupils at age 9, having a generally but not significantly lower static balance ability in postures with occluded vision, was efficiently divided by ataxiametric scores into balance-impaired and balance-unimpaired subjects. The study seems to throw new light on the role of maturational and organic factors in the etiology of learning difficulties in normal and educationally handicapped children at the primary grades.