The Effect Of Aerobic Training On Static Balance And Eye-Hand Coordination In Children With Cancer

Attention, Balance and Coordination (ABC Learning) are importance for learning. Goddard Blythe(2009) stresses the importance of the relationship between these three elements in terms of thechild’s readiness to learn. If a child cannot maintain good control and coordination over her body,she/he is not well equipped for learning. Once a child has achieved these movement skills to ageappropriatelevels, she/he is then perceived to be ready to learn. In children with cancer thatphysical preparation is damaged because of primary and secondary effects of disease and drugtreatments, improvement of these factors is critical. 33 children with cancer (girls= 15 n, boys= 18n, mean age=10.1, mean weight=31.5) voluntarily were participated in research. Physical activityquestionnaire and consent letter were completed by parents. 17 children assigned to aerobictraining group and 16 children assigned to control group. Experimental group exercised for 3months and 3 sessions in week and each session was one hour. Before and after of training protocol,both of groups completed static balance test by BIODEX instrument and eye-hand coordination testwith VIENNA. data analysis using spss software and paired-t test showed that static balance andeye-hand coordination of experimental group were improved significantly from beginning to end ofprotocol (P<..05). however because of treatment problems in control group, they were unable toparticipate in posttest. So there was not possibility of comparing experimental group with controlgroup. Regular physical activity (Aerobic exercise) can be a good way to prepare children in terms ofphysical coordination and balance requirements for entry to school and next learning.