The performance of children developing typically on the pediatric balance scale

Area of Science:

• Pediatric physical therapy
• Child development
• Motor control research

Background:

• The Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) is a tool used to assess balance in children.
• Establishing normative data is crucial for accurate clinical interpretation of PBS scores.
• Understanding typical development aids in identifying potential balance impairments early.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and define typical Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) performance in a large cohort of typically developing children.
• To establish age- and gender-specific normative data for the PBS.
• To provide clinicians with reliable benchmarks for assessing pediatric balance.

Main Methods:

• Administered the PBS via parent report to 643 typically developing children aged 2 years 4 months to 13 years 7 months.
• Utilized 2-way ANOVA and post hoc analyses to identify age and gender differences.
• Employed Spearman rank correlation to examine associations between PBS scores and anthropometric measures (age, height, weight, BMI).

Main Results:

• Significant differences in PBS performance were observed based on age and gender.
• PBS scores showed significant correlations with age, height, weight, and body mass index.
• Defined typical performance ranges and critical cut scores for the PBS for various age and gender groups using 95% confidence intervals.

Conclusions:

• This research provides essential guidelines for clinicians to interpret Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) performance in children.
• The established normative data and critical cut scores enhance the clinical utility of the PBS for identifying balance deficits.
• The findings support the use of the PBS as a standardized measure in pediatric physical therapy and developmental assessments.