The Effects of 6 Weeks of Balance Training on Static and Dynamic Balance of Blind Students

Background and Purpose: Visual disturbance causes problems in the orientation, balance, and movement of individuals. It is especially important in children because this is a golden age for adoring physical exercises and physical function in these people. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of 6 weeks of balance training on the static and dynamic balance of blind students. Materials and Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study, and the subjects included 45 blind students living in Ahwaz City, Iran. The participants were selected using convenience and purposive sampling methods. A sample of 20 girls and 20 boys, aged 7-14 years, was selected and randomly divided into two control and experiment groups consisting of 20 subjects each (10 females and 10 males). The experimental group received a six-week course of balance training intervention. They have received six-week balance training program, 2 sessions of 45 minutes a week. Static balance was measured by stork test and for dynamic balance star balance test was used. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to control the normality of data. In order to study the effect of time and between groups, repeated measures ANOVA was used. For analyzing the data SPSS software, version 25, Excel 2019 software, and in all statistic test α=0.05 was used. All analyses were done in SPSS software v. 25, Excel 2019 software. The significance level was considered at 0.05 for all tests.  Results: The two groups of blind student, each groups 20 subjects and mean age of 10.33 and 11.12 years in control and exercise group respectively. Comparing the groups showed that six weeks of balance training had a positive and significant effect on static balance and dynamic balance of exercise group (P<0.001). The results also showed that in the Post-test stage, the experimental group performed better in static and dynamic balance in all 8 directions compared to the control group (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between girls and boys in terms of balance. Conclusion: Regarding the effect of these exercises on improving the balance of blind children, it is recommended that parents, physical education teachers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and all those who are in some way associated with these children, use balance training as a therapeutic plan.