The Effect of Retro Walking Training on Dynamic Balance in Sedentary Individuals with Hearing Impairment

Abstract

The study analyzed the possible effects of retro walking exercise techniques on the skill of balance in hearing impaired individuals. The study is a quasi-experimental study and the single group pretest-post-test design among the experiment models was used. The study groups was applied a retro walking exercise for eight weeks. 25 hearing impaired students participated in the study, who had not engaged in any sports branches previously, in the 13-17 age group and did not have any neurological and orthopedical diseases in the last 6 months as the study group. In order to measure dynamic balance, the ‘Techno Body ProKin Balance Measurement Device’ was used. At the end of the eight week exercise program, the same measurements were taken again and the development level within the group was assessed. The descriptive statistics, arithmetic averages and standard deviation values of the participants’ age, height, weight and hearing impairment percentages were determined. It was analyzed whether the data displayed normal distribution. Since it was seen that the data displayed normal distribution, the Paired Sample t-test was done. As a result of the study, it was seen that there was a significant difference between the pretest, post-test mean ranks of the participants’ both feet, right and left feet perimeter length (PL) (p.05). It was seen that this difference was in favor of the post-test when the mean ranks and totals of the scores were taken into consideration. It was seen that there was a significant difference between left foot MECAP pretest and post-test mean ranks as well (p.05). In addition a significant difference was also found between both feet and right foot MECML values’ pretest, post-test mean ranks (p.05). The results of the study showed that the retro walking exercise program is effective in hearing impaired individuals in terms of improving their dynamic balance skill. Through the findings, it can be said that the use of different, efficient and safe exercise methods such as retro walking should be given importance to for hearing impaired individuals to be more active and do efficient and safe exercises.