Self-analysis materials (e.g., photos, charts, study reports to interpret, questions to think about etc.)

Return to VIDEO 6,7 assessing balance.
You can observe a 25-year-old woman with Down syndrome. Additionally, she was born with a heart defect – a defect in the interventricular septum and underwent heart surgery in childhood. Currently, the cardiologist does not indicate the need to limit physical activity. The person presented on these tests has great problems with balance. In the Single Leg Stance test with her eyes open, her average time was 16 seconds. With her eyes closed, she was able to maintain her balance for 2.5 seconds. In the Functional Reach Test she achieved a result of 17 cm.It turns out that she sometimes loses her balance. Last year, she suffered a fall and broke her radius. Her radius has healed properly, but now the woman is afraid of falling, for example riding a bike or rollerblading. She likes listening to music and before her fracture she took part in dance classes. Additionally, with a height of 158 cm, he weighs 70 kg. He also has a visual impairment and must use glasses.
There is good contact with the woman, she can communicate fluently in short sentences. She understands most simple commands.
The woman lives with her parents and also has an older sister. Her sister started her own family but lives nearby and they are in constant contact. The parents are very involved in caring for their daughter and enjoy spending time together. Both parents are overweight, and the whole family likes to spend their free time watching TV.
Analyse the situation of the person, think about the possible intervention, analyse possible difficulties and ways to solve them.

You notice that the woman is overweight and that her balance tests are well below normal.
You should consider consulting a dietitian. A good idea is to involve the entire family in changing eating habits and increasing activity.
Consider interventions such as walking and swimming or water activities.
You can look for dance classes organized in the area together.
The woman presented has no contraindications to physical activity – look for something attractive together.
You should also introduce an exercise program to improve balance, start with very simple exercises performed with the help of a physiotherapist. As a woman’s balance improves and her confidence increases, you can increase the difficulty of the exercises and assign exercises to do at home. If the fear of losing balance persists, suggest meeting with a psychologist.