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Background and aim: Down's syndrome is the most common chrosomal disorder in which the fine and gross motor skills due to lack of proper sensory experience are disturbed. the role of dexterity in Activity of daily living, interaction with environment and independency is quiet crucial in Down's syndrome. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of simultaneous application of exteroceptive and proprioceptive stimuli on the dexterity of 6-7 year old educable children with Down's syndrome.  

Materials and methods: 33 Educable children with Down's syndrome were assigned in three groups (i.e. extercoceptive, proprioceptive, simultaneous application respectively) and participated in this study. In the first group, children received only exteroceptive stimulation for 30 minutes, 3 times a week. Children in the second group received only proprioceptive stimulation in the same period. Children in the third group received both stimulations simultaneously. Dexterity was evaluated through purdue peg bourd test after 5^th, 10^th, 15^th, 20^th, 25^th, and at 30^th sessions.

Results: Dexterity changes were significantly differed in all 3 groups (p<0.05) using repeated measurement test. In order to assess the improvement process of dexterity, every group was evaluated separately with dexterity test ( purdue peg board). Third group showed significant improvement in comparison with other groups (p<0.05). There was no significant improvement in dexterity in first and second groups (p>0.05).  

Conclusion: The findings of current study suggest that simultaneous application of exteroceptive and proprioceptive senses could be used for improvement of dexterity in children with Down's syndrome and perhaps in children with motor control problems.  

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Back ground and aim: The development of body parts identification is parallel with the development of sensory motor. The proper evaluation of developmental is done in western countries, but they are not designed for different races, therefore we decide to survey about body part identification in Tehran.
Materials and Methods: This study performed on 90 children (46 girls and 44 boys) of 1-4years old in east of Tehran with cross sectional design. The first demographic questionnaire was completed by chief nursery and then the second section of questionnaire which was consisted of self body and doll body parts identification, filled in order to determine the number of parts pointed for obtaining of total grade survey on the children and dolls bodies.
Results: The findings showed that there were significant difference between three group of age (P<0.0001). There was no significant differences between two gender groups (boys and girls) in scores mean of self and doll bodies identification in all age groups (P>0.05). In final there was no significant difference between body identification on self body and doll body (P=0.12).
Conclusion: Children who are unable to point to body parts may be at risk for delays in language, cognition, and body scheme development and should be screened or evaluated further.

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Background and Aim: Many of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with normal pure tone thresholds complain from difficulties in their hearing, especially perception of speech in background noise. Many tests for evaluation of this dysfunction have been developed one of the best tests that are applied for evaluating the ability of individual to process and categorize brief, rapid changes in auditory stimuli is duration pattern sequence test (DPST). Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to compare between MS and normal 18-40-years-old participants by the duration pattern sequence test (DPST).

Materials and Methods: This analytic-descriptive non-invasive cohort study was conducted on 20 relapsing-remitting MS and 26 normal subjects 18-40-year-old with normal hearing. The finding data, percent of corrected answers, in two groups was evaluated by T-test. 

Results: The finding showed reduction of corrected answers percentage in DPST test between two groups (P<0.05). in addition, long periods of  the disease showed poor performance in DPST test in both ear.   

Conclusion: The findings of this study confirm that temporal resolution deficits in patient with MS may be related to involvement of central auditory processing nervous system.

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Background and Aim: Standing stability is resulted by normal functioning of various neuro-muscular and musculo-skeletal systems. Patients with below knee amputation cannot use ankle strategy due to limb loss and they have to rely on other mechanisms to improve their standing stability. The effect of prosthesis foot on standing stability of patients with below knee amputation is not well understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of below knee amputees and determine the influence of prosthesis foot on stability

Materials and Methods:  Fourty subjects participated in this study. Participants were divided into three groups including:  (a) normal individuals, (b) amputees using SACH foot and (c) amputees using single axis foot. The stability of subjects was evaluated by use of a Kistler force plate. The subjects were asked to stand on the force plate for one minute and look forward with their hand at their sides. The stability was evaluated by use of some parameters such as excursion of Center of Pressure (COP) and path length and velocity of COP in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions. The difference between the stability of the subjects was determined using One-way ANOVA and Post Hoc test.

Results: There was a significant difference between stability of the three groups during standing with regard to path length and velocity of COP in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions (P < 0.05). No significant difference was reported with regard to all of the measured parameters when comparing normal individuals and amputees with single axis foot (P >0.05).

Conclusion: Below-knee amputees standing stability who are using single axis foot have the same standing stability compared to normal subjects; moreover, stability of amputees who are using SACH foot was surprisingly better than normal subjects in some of the parameters including path length and velocity of COP in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions.

Keywords: Standing stability, Below knee amputation, SACH foot, Single axis foot, Force plate