Multi-sensory systems, including the visual, somatosensory, and vestibular ones, are involved in maintaining standing balance. The organization of these sensory systems is as important as the efficiency of each individual system in maintaining optimal balance. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the developmental changes in static standing balance and sensory organization under altered sensory conditions. This study involved 64 children (from 4 to 15 years of age) and 17 young adults. The children were divided into four age groups: 4~6, 7~9, 10~12, and 13~15 years. Static standing balance was assessed with the one-leg standing test under four different sensory conditions: the children stood on a firm surface with (1) eyes open or (2) closed, and they stood on a foam surface with eyes (3) open or (4) closed. In balancing ability, the age groups exhibited significant differences. The function of sensory organization for balance control was poorer for the children than for the young adults. The functional efficiency of the somatosensory system of the children aged 7~9 years was at the young adults' level, and the visual function of the children aged 10~12 years had also reached the young adults' level. However, the functional efficiency of the vestibular system of children was significantly lower than that of the young adults, even at the age of 15 years. This may indicate that sensory organization and standing balance are still developing after the age of 15 years.

Purpose: Postural stability has an important role for developing locomotion skills, especially in childhood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental change of postural stability with respect to locomotor skills. Methods: Thirty-five participants aged between five to seven year-old whom differentiated by pre examination were divided into Jumping, Hopping, Galloping and Skipping group, respectively. They were asked to perform quiet standing and leaning voluntarily forward, backward, left and right as far as possible on a force plate. A vector of center of pressure was measured to calculate postural stability and one-way ANOVA was performed. Results: Jumping group showed significant low postural stability than the others and there is no significant difference among Hopping, Galloping, and Skipping group who can perform advanced locomotor skills. Conclusion: Postural stability seems to increase when children acquire advance locomotor skills and this result might reflect nonlinear characteristic of human motor development.