Motor Skill Performances of Children Who Are Deaf

Abstract

The Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) was used to assess the fundamental motor skills of 91 girls and 110 boys aged 4 to 18 years who attended two schools for students who are deaf. Average hearing loss, determined by better ear average, was 96.94 dB (SD = 14.40 dB). Modifications to the procedures for administering the TGMD included visual demonstrations and the use of signing to communicate instructions. The raw score means of subjects aged 4–10 years who were deaf were lower than those of the TGMD standardization sample of same-aged children who could hear at six of seven age levels on both the object-control and locomotor subscales. However, there were relatively small differences in the mean scores of the two groups. Subjects with mature movement patterns for the throw, kick, jump, and run performed better on quantitative tests for those skills than subjects with immature patterns. Typical age and gender patterns of skill acquisition were revealed for both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the fundamental motor skills examined.