Abstract:

The purpose of this study is determining the visual reaction times of the hearing-impaired individuals who deal with Football, Folk Dances, Basketball, and Volleyball; and comparing the scores with the scores of the individuals with sedentary hearing-impaired individuals; and presenting the differences, if any. 156 individuals in total with the mean age values 14.38±3.32 participated in the study, all of them benefiting from special education/training opportunities, and 51 of them dealing with sport. 105 of them did not deal with any sports. Hearing-impaired individuals who trained for 2-2,5 hours for at least 3 times a week, except the physical education classes between 3-5 years, and hearing-impaired individuals who did not participate in these trainings were subjected to voluntary visual reaction tests. The visual reaction time of the hearing-impaired individuals was measured by using the Newtest 100 device. The visual reaction time in 1/1000 s. was recorded with the device. 10 recurrent measurements of all subjects were taken, and the best and the worst values were determined, and the arithmetic mean values of them were recorded. All data were determined in percentages (%), frequencies(f), arithmetic averages ( ), and standard deviations (SD). The Independent Samples t-test was used in comparison of the groups. In statistical assessments, the meaningfulness level was accepted as p<0.05. The individuals who participated in the study were also examined in terms of gender. It was determined that the male hearing-impaired individuals who participated in the study and who did sports were more (% 35,4) than the female hearing-impaired individuals who did sports (%30,8). The most frequently preferred sport branch was determined as Football (%39,2), and then Turkish Folk Dances (%23,5). When the dominant hand-visual reaction times of the hearing-impaired individuals who did sports, and who did not do sports were compared, a statistical difference was observed, and the scores were in favor of those who did sports (p<0.001). When the non-dominant hand-visual reaction scores were compared, a statistical difference was observed, and the scores were again in favor of those who did sports (p<0.001). As a conclusion, it has been determined that the visual reaction times of the hearing-impaired individuals who do sports are shorter than the visual reaction times of the hearing-impaired individuals who do not do any exercises. Based on these results, it can be suggested that doing sports affects the visual reaction times in hearing-impaired individuals in a positive way.

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