Assessment of Balance functions and Primitive Reflexes in Children with Learning Disability

Abstract

L earning disabilities (LD) refer to a group of heterogeneous disorders which may affect the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding or use of verbal or nonverbal information (Sahoo et al., 2015). In Egypt 16.6% of primary school students are at risk for LD with male to female ratio 2:1 (Ismail et al., 2019). Dyslexia is the most common LD, accounting for at least 80% of all LDs (Kohli et al., 2018). It is characterized by problems with accurate or fluent word recognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities, despite adequate intelligence, motivation, and educational opportunities. Central auditory processing (CAPD) is characterized by poor perception of speech and non-speech sounds. Individuals with APD may present by listening difficulties, difficulty in hearing& understanding speech in noise, difficulties with sound localization, poor attention and/or memory. They may have impaired speech, language, literacy and academic performance (BSA, 2018). Primitive reflexes are complex, automatic movement patterns that commence as early as the twenty-fifth week of gestation, are fully present at birth in term infants. At the age of three years the primitive reflexes should be fully inhibited and no longer interfere with movements. Replacement reflexes, called postural reflexes, emerge (Fong et al., 2012). Postural reflexes are more mature patterns of response that control balance, coordination and sensory motor development.