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Objective: The balance of human body is maintained by a complex process involving visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems. Since the postural control require information from all of these three sensory systems to maintain optimal postural stability, lack of information in one system may affect body sway during maintaining balance .The purpose of this study is to investigate the functional balance in boys with severe-to-profound vision and hearing impairments aged 6-14 years.
Methods: This descriptive analytical study was conducted on 30 visually-impaired, 30 hearing-impaired and 30 healthy boys who were selected by purposive sampling method. The Timed Up and Go Test was used for functional balance assessment. One-way ANOVA and Scheffe’s post hoc test were used to analyze data in SPSS V. 20 software, considering the significance level at P≤0.05
Results: Functional balance was significantly different in visually-impaired, hearing-impaired and healthy boys (P=0001) where it was poorer in visually-impaired boys compared to visually-impaired and healthy groups (P=0.000). There was no significant difference between hearing-impaired and healthy boys (P=0.001 ).
Conclusion: It seems that vision and hearing impairments can reduce functional balance in boys. Visually-impaired boys have poorer balance than the hearing-impaired and healthy boys.

Keywords: Functional balance, Sensory impairment, Hearing impairment, Vision impairment

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