Grip strength and dexterity in adults with developmental delays

The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of dexterity and grip strength assessments by comparing the scores of adults with developmental delays with adult norms. A second purpose was to determine the correlations among the assessment instruments. Fifty-six developmentally disabled adults performed the box and block test, the nine hole peg test, and grip strength. Males performed significantly better on grip strength than females, but there was no significant difference on dexterity scores. Males scored significantly lower than established norms on all tests except the left nine hole peg test. Females scores were significantly lower than norms on all tests except the left and right nine hole peg test. Dexterity test scores on one side of the body were highly correlated with those on the other side, but grip strength was not highly correlated with dexterity. This suggests that occupational therap~sts need to treat dexterity and grip as separate entitles. The present results may provide guidelines to determine average performance for adults with developmental delays.