investigation of static Balance control in 4-6 years old children with using the Pediatric Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction for Balance (P-CTSIB)

Objectives: Undiagnosed balance disorders during childhood can negatively affect children’s functional abilities such as reading and school performance. The Pediatric Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction for Balance (P-CTSIB) reflects how children combine and use different sensory information to react to different conditions in the static balance. This study aimed to examine balance control in normal 4-6 years old children in Tehran, Iran using P-CTSIB. Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical study conducted on 121, 4-6 years old preschools children in Tehran. The P-CTSIB includes 12 conditions that are a combination of visual conditions (eyes open, eyes closed wearing visual-conflict dome), support surface (stand on firm surface or foam), and feet positions (feet-together and heel-toe). Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and repeated measures and post-hoc tests were used for age and gender comparisons.  Results: Average standing time, anterior-posterior sway, and lateral sway in the P-CTSIB conditions were evaluated in different age groups. Different age groups had significantly different scores on the three items of the test (P<0.05), but there was no significant gender difference (P>0.05). Discussion: Given that all children had a better performance on the feet together position in P-CTSIB, this position can be used to assess balance performance in all 4-6 years old children.