An analysis of selected motor characteristics according to age groups in hearing-impaired individuals

The aim of this study is to examine various characteristics such as agility, balance, flexibility, reaction time, movement speed of individuals with hearing impairment by age variable. A total of 51 voluntary male individuals with hearing impairment participated in the study. The age range is between 16 and 20. Variables such as height, body weight, balance, agility, reaction time and movement speed were measured. All measurements were done three times and best score was recorded. Measurement results were presented as mean and standard deviation values. One way analysis of variance was used in order to determine differences between age group and p<0.05 value was considered to be statistically significant. Study results show that there are no statistically significant difference between groups regarding balance, agility and flexibility values (p>0.05). However, regarding reaction time of hands and feet the difference between them are found to be statistically significant (p<0.001). As a result, it was observed that static balance, agility and flexibility performances of individuals with hearing impairment are not related to age while reaction time and movement speed scores values are age-related. © Kamla-Raj 2016.