UTILIZATION OF THE SMART BALANCE MASTER IN THE EVALUATION OF THE BALANCE AT THE DOWN'S SYNDROME CHILDREN

The Down's syndrome children present serious insufficiencies at the motor and psychomotor level which have negative influences on daily life. These insufficiencies must be identified with the help of the classical tests or the apparatus or devices which stress the deficit and give the solutions for education or correction. Balance represents the capacity of keeping the body in a balanced position and remarking its balance after the change of place and the solicitations with large amplitude. The Down's syndrome children have a short balance which can be evaluated with the help of the tests which enter the structure of the standard batteries (Brockport, FUNFitness developed by the American physiotherapists and applied by the Special Olympics International, a.o.) or with the help of the very precise electronic equipment. Such equipment is SMART Balance master which supplies an objective evaluation of the balance and its rehabilitation too. The evaluation and the rehabilitation of the balance is realized on a platform where the children fix their feet and it is surrounded by a visual framework can be fixed or moved depending on the test conditions. The platform and the visual framework which surrounds it are link to a computer. The computer sets the Down's syndrome children in six conditions by a specialized soft. A child receives a score for every test condition. The final result is an average of all scores that the child has obtained for all six test conditions. The result is expressed in percent. The 100% indicates a perfect balance. The research is achieved and published under the aegis of the National University of Physical Education and Sports of Bucharest, as a partner of the programme co-funded by the European Social Fund within the Operational Sectorial Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013 through the project Pluri- and interdisciplinary in doctoral and post-doctoral programmes Project Code: POSDRU/159/1.5/S/141086, its main beneficiary being the Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy.