The Effectiveness of Body Percussion Rhythmic Exercises on Motor Skills in Children with Mild Intellectual Disability Between 8-12 Years Old

Abstract

Background and Objective: Intellectual disability is a common neurological disorder that involves concomitant impairments in mental and adaptive functioning and begins during the developmental period. Percussion is a rhythmic movement activity and the art of body- slapping to produce a variety of sounds for educational, therapeutic, ethnological and social purposes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of percussion rhythmic exercises on motor skills of mild mentally disabled children. Methods: This is a randomized clinical trial in which 60 children with mild intellectual disability aged 8 to 12 years were selected by convenience sampling and divided into two groups: experimental (n = 31) and control (n = 29). The experimental group received body percussion exercises as a group for 12 weeks, 2 sessions per week and 30 minutes per session and the control group received only the usual school schedule. Both groups were evaluated before and after by Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Paired T-test was used for intra-group comparisons and independent T-test was used to compare the two groups. Results: Results indicated that body percussion rhythmic exercises had a significant effect on some motor items including: fine motor skills, bi-lateral coordination, upper-limb coordination, visual-motor control, speed and upper- limbs speed and dexterity. Conclusion: Therefore, it can be stated that group body percussion rhythmic exercises is a good way to improve motor skills in children with mild intellectual disability.

Keywords

• rhythm
• body percussion
• motor skills
• mild intellectual disability