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Updated: Jun 24, 2026
Clinical Assessment of Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters in Patients and Older Adults
Published on: November 7, 2014
Visual deprivation leads to gait adaptations that are age- and context-specific: I. Step-time parameters
Ann Hallemans1, Sofie Beccu, Kelly Van Loock
1Research Group of Functional Morphology, University of Antwerp, Belgium. ann.hallemans@ua.ac.be
Insights
Visual information is vital for balance and walking. Closing eyes impacts gait more in children than adults, suggesting vision
Area of Science:
- Developmental neuroscience
- Biomechanics
- Human motor control
Background:
- Vision plays a key role in maintaining postural control.
- Age-related differences exist in how visual disturbances affect balance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in the impact of visual deprivation on dynamic stability and gait.
- To explore the relationship between postural sway and gait parameters under altered visual conditions.
Main Methods:
- Tested postural stability and gait in 40 children (3-11 years) and 20 adults.
- Compared performance with eyes open (EO) versus eyes closed (EC).
Main Results:
- Visual deprivation (EC) significantly affected postural sway, walking speed, stride length, and double support duration in both children and adults.
- The reduction in walking speed with eyes closed was more pronounced in children than adults.
- Correlations were found between postural sway and gait parameters like walking speed, step frequency, and stride length.
Conclusions:
- Visual deprivation impacts locomotion in both children and adults.
- Children's gait is more sensitive to visual deprivation than adults', highlighting vision's importance for their dynamic stability.
- Gait adaptations during visual deprivation are linked to underlying balance challenges.
Abstract:
In children, visual information is crucial for static postural control, although age-related differences exist in the impact of visual perturbation on postural sway. Since static postural control and locomotion are closely related, we expect age-related differences in the impact of visual deprivation on dynamic stability and gait. It is hypothesised that this is related to the important role of vision in postural control. Postural stability and gait was tested in 20 adults and 40 children (3-11 years old) under two different visual conditions: eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC). Significant differences were found between EO and EC for postural sway, dimensionless walking speed, dimensionless stride length and duration of double support. Thus, we can state that visual deprivation affects locomotion both in adults and children. Concerning walking speed a significant interaction effect was observed with age. The difference in walking speed between EO and EC is larger in children than in adults. Furthermore, we found significant correlations between postural sway and walking speed, step frequency and stride length. These observations support the hypothesis that gait adaptations in situations of visual deprivation are related to balance problems.
