Balance Disc

I've just found this article yesterday.

Balance exercises in Children with Down's Syndrome:A Randomised Controlled Trial

Sharma A, Ganesan S, Tedla JS (2012) Balance exercises in Children with Down's Syndrome:A Randomised Controlled Trial. International Journal of Current Research and Review , 4 (1). pp. 130-134.

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the effect of balance exercises and standardized exercises in children with Down‟s syndrome. Methods: 30 children with Down syndrome aged 5-15 years were assigned to the experimental and control group using block randomization. Children in the experimental group underwent balance exercise program whereas children in the control group underwent standardised exercise program, twice per week for a total of 6 weeks. Results: There was significant improvement in both the groups on the Pediatric Balance scale and the gross motor function measure scores. However the experimental group showed a greater improvement than the control group. Conclusion: Balance exercises are better than standardised exercises in improving the dynamic balance and gross motor function in children with Down syndrome.

This team is from, don't laugh, Department of physiotherapy, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. So, the credentials are not that amazing. I actually had to Google "Mangalore" (it's an Indian city). This being said, the findings resonated with me. My son is very active and is doing a fair amount of physical therapy since forever. Still, I am worried about his posture and it has to do with his core musculature not being stimulated in an efficient way. Somehow, all this therapy is not enough. 

Anyway, for a while now I was considering buying a balance disc, both for me and for my son. They are supposed to improve posture and work all sort of muscles. This article gave me the excuse to finally do it, so I just order two discs (green and purple) today. We'll see if my son likes it. I'm thinking about getting another one for my office - they are supposed to relieve back stress from spending too much time in a chair.

Update: We are using these discs.They both work great. In our house, everything works better if we take turns, so we have 2 balancing discs (or stability discs).