Exposure to emotions and postural stability in deaf youth

Abstract

IntroductionThe population of deaf people is a heterogeneous group. Understanding the significant variables that affect motor, socio-emotional and cognitive development sets the direction and quality for subsequent developmental stages and provides the opportunity to select appropriate compensatory methods for deaf individuals.AimThe aim of the study was to verify the visual effect of the emotions of joy and anger on one of the dimensions of eye-hand coordination, i.e. postural stability among deaf and hearing youth.Material and methodsStudy subjects: 120 teenagers aged 13–17 years. The test group comprised 60 subjects with profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, while the control group comprised 60 hearing junior high school students. The study used a computerised stabilometric platform and photographs sourced from an affective image database Montreal Set of Facial Displays of Emotion.Results and discussionIn deaf youth, a switch in the stability of the body occurs, as compared to hearing youth. The results obtained indicate the need for the activation of cognitive, emotional and motor resources of deaf people with an area of multiple modalities taken into account.ConclusionsHuman development should be regarded as a continual process in relation to compensatory capacity.