title: Relationship of ankle strength and hypermobility to squatting skills of children with Down syndrome.
abstract: We used ankle goniometric and force measures to determine the relative contribution of hypermobility and strength to heels-down squatting (HDS) in four groups: eight children with Down syndrome, eight hypermobile children, six retarded children, and seven children with normal development. Analysis of variance and across group correlations revealed force as a major but not sole contributor to HDS; hypermobility was found not to have significant influence. Heels-down squatting may be a compensatory mechanism resulting from underdeveloped balance or irregular activation of agonist-antagonist relations around the ankle joint.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: MacNeill-Shea
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mezzomo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002648:Child; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006365:Heel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D009068:Movement; D009132:Muscles / Q000503:physiopathology