Assessment Of Spinal Posture, Balance And Ankle Muscle Shortness İn Children With Autism

Spinal Mouse :

Spinal Mouse is a tool used for noninvasive external evaluation that measures spinal angles and shape in frontal and sagittal planes. It is used to measure spinal intersegmental angles and spinal range of motion. The device is moved over the columna vertebralis on the skin surface following the spinous processes from C7 to S3. It provides information about inclination, thorax, lumbar and sacrum/hip angles. Stores data and provides result output via computer program

Both frontal and sagittal assesment were made while standing upright

For the sagittal assesment there were 3 different evaluation positions

• Standing still
• Body flexion
• Body extension

For the frontal assesment there were 3 different evaluation positions

• Standing still
• Body left lateral flexion
• Body right lateral flexion

It is a scale consisting of 15 items used to assess the severity of autism, with each item scored between 1 and 4. A score of 1 represents that the child's behavior for that item is normal for his/her age, while a score of 4 represents that it is extremely abnormal. The minimum score is 15 and the maximum score is 60. The results are evaluated as "no autism" between 15-29 points, "mild-moderate autism" between 30-36 points, and extreme autism between 37-60 points.

Families of the children were asked to fill out the forms.

It is a scale used to assess the balance of 14 functional tasks. Each item is scored between 0 and 4. A higher score represents better balance. The maximum possible score is 56.

Children were asked to complete the functional tasks and were scored accordingly to their performance.

Children were asked to sit upright on a chair with a straight back. At the start command, the child stood up, walked 3 meters, turned around and sat back on the chair. The time taken to perform the movement was recorded in seconds and performance was interpreted accordingly

Passive foot dorsiflexion measurement with a manual goniometer was performed at 0 degrees knee flexion for Gastrocnemius muscle and 90 degrees knee flexion for Soleus muscle. Muscle shortness was expressed in degrees. Ankle neutral position was recorded as 0 degrees, dorsiflexion angles as positive and plantar flexion angles as negative.

Tiptoe walking was assessed and classified by observation during 10-meter walk-run. Level 1 indicates that there is tiptoe behavior during running, walking and standing; Level 2 indicates that there is tiptoe behavior during running and walking; Level 3 indicates that there is tiptoe behavior only during running; if no tiptoe walking is observed, it was indicated as "no tiptoe walking".