A Comparison of Chosen Strength Abilities in Deaf and Blind Adolescents

The presented paper is a comparative study of conditioning abilities of deaf and blind adolescents. It was assumed that the tested motor abilities were underdeveloped in blind adolescents. The given results are part of a research project entitled: “The influence of hearing and sight disabilities on chosen aspects of child and adolescent development”. In this comparative study blind, deaf and normal adolescents aged 16-17 yrs were tested. The following types of strength abilities were evaluated: explosive strength, static strength, relative strength. All tests were conducted according to the Eurofit test instruction. The results achieved by deaf boys may suggest better development of strength abilities in comparison with blind boys. This tendency does not occur with girls. In the majority of the tests their results were worse in comparison with blind girls. The hypothesis was confirmed with boys (apart from trunk strength). Among girls, worse results were achieved by deaf girls (apart from lower limb explosive strength).