The Development of Mature Walking

Book excerpt: This important monograph summarizes a comprehensive study on the maturation of walking in normal children. Research, undertaken at one of the world's leading gait analysis centers, involved over 400 studies on a total of nearly 300 children in ten age-groups from one to seven years. Data are presented on anthropometric measurements; tests of developmental progress; time/distance parameters such as stride length and walking velocity; twelve joint angles on each side measured throughout the gait cycle; dynamic electromyography of phasic activity in seven lower-extremity muscle groups; and force measurements including vertical force, fore/aft shear, medial/lateral shear and torque. At each age, composite joint-angle graphs and time/distance parameters are brought together with film tracings of a representative child in that age group. In addition, advanced methods of statistical analysis have been applied to the joint-angle data to define prediction regions within which ninety-five percent of normal children should lie throughout the gait cycle. Finally, a "decision tree" is presented from which a fitted age can be inferred for a subject based on non-age-specific data gathered in a motion analysis lab. Practical applications are demonstrated in a chapter devoted to two case studies.