Posturographic training in flatbed therapy for younger school children

The arch of the foot began to develop parallel to the transition towards an erect posture of the body to bear the weight and to absorb shocks while the foot is in contact with the ground. The human foot consists of two arches - longitudinal and transverse arch. Both start to develop as the child starts to walk. The development is finished around the pre-school age. From literature it is known that up to 80 % of inhabitants suffer from incorrect foot hold/position. One of the most common deformations of the foot appears to be flat feet. Flat feet are usually formed already in childhood. With the common causes being premature toddler footwear, fashion shoes, fast growth, and excessive physical activity etc. Posturographic techniques are methods used for measurement and treatment of qualitative and quantitate postural balance. There exist two types of posturography - static and dynamic. The theoretical part of the thesis covers the specification of foot anatomy and function, the arch of the foot, the definition of Flat feet and a brief description of therapy. It is followed by description of the posturographic function and posturographic tool, which was used during the practical part of this thesis for the therapy itself. The practical part of the thesis was processed as qualitative research where an initial examination of aspects, an interview and both a posturographic and podoscope assessment all concluded in the form of case reports, took place. Three boys, who attended the first grade of an elementary school were included in this study. They attended the posturograph therapy once a week and they went through a given set of exercises at home. First goal of this study was to observe if the posturography training included in the therapy of flat feet has an impact on the results within the children around the age of primary elementary school. The second goal was to evaluate the effect of posturography exercises on the therapy of flat feet among children. Although this thesis has not brought clear results, a slight improvement of the childrens posture could be observed. The explanation of the unclear results could be due to the small size of the test group or due to short and inefficiently intense therapy. Nonetheless some of the children were looking forward to attending the appointments and that in my opinion adds to the benefits of the overall results