Gross motor development of Malaysian hearing impaired male preand early school children

Abstract

Acquisition of gross motor skill is a natural developmental process for children. This aspect of human development increases with one's chronological age, irrespective of any developmental conditions. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of gross motor skill development among pre- and early school-aged children with motor disability. A total of 315 hearing-impaired pre- and early school male children in peninsular Malaysia participated in this study. Gross motor development was determined via Ulrich's Test of Gross Motor Development. Overall findings revealed significant differences among pre- and early school gross motor development in terms of locomotors and object manipulation skills. However, significant difference was not observed when both the locomotor and object manipulation skill scores were analyzed based on the Gross Motor Development Quotient (GMDQ) index. Such result indicated that the differences observed for both locomotor and object manipulation skills among pre- and early school-aged children were age-related consequences. However, the absence of significant difference in terms of GMDQ revealed that the differences were not in accordance to improvements that should be observed with increased chronological age.