Individualized task difficulty promotes balance training outcomes and self-efficacy in individuals with lower limb...

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Science
• Motor Learning
• Biomechanics

Background:

• Effective motor skill learning often involves adaptive task difficulty to optimize training and prevent frustration.
• This principle has not been applied to balance training for individuals with impaired postural control, such as those with lower limb loss.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a novel stabilometer-based balance training task with individualized difficulty levels.
• To compare balance task performance and self-efficacy between training with and without individualized difficulty.

Main Methods:

• Ten older adults and 10 individuals with unilateral lower limb amputation participated.
• The experimental group received training with difficulty individualized by pretraining weight-bearing capacity; the control group received standard training.
• Participants maintained a stabilometer horizontally for as long as possible over 20 trials, with performance and self-efficacy assessed post-block.

Main Results:

• The individualized difficulty group showed significantly greater improvements in time in balance (7.8 to 16.9s vs. 8.5 to 8.2s) and reduced root-mean-square error (10.9° to 6.8° vs. 10.9° to 10.8°).
• Self-efficacy also significantly increased in the experimental group compared to the control group (P = 0.005–0.012).

Conclusions:

• Balance training with individualized task difficulty enhances both performance and self-efficacy in individuals with lower limb loss.
• This feasible protocol can be clinically applied to improve balance and postural confidence in this population.