Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026
Activity-based Training on a Treadmill with Spinal Cord Injured Wistar Rats
Published on: January 16, 2019
Treadmill training and overground gait: decision making for a toddler with spina bifida
Victoria A Moerchen1, Mohammad Habibi, Kelly A Lynett
1Physical Therapy Program, Department of Human Movement Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI, USA. moerchev@uwm.edu
Background And Purpose:
This case report describes a decision-making process that was used to progress a home-based intervention that coupled treadmill and walker stepping for a preambulatory toddler with spina bifida.
Case Description:
The toddler in this report had an L4-L5 level lesion, and began this home-based intervention at 18 months of age when she was pulling to stand.
Intervention:
The intervention included parameters for treadmill stepping that prepared this toddler for gait with orthotics and was progressed to overground walking with a walker using a decision-making algorithm based on data obtained from a parent log and coded video.
Outcomes:
This toddler progressed from not stepping at the start of the study to ambulating 150 m with a walker at age 23 months, after 18 weeks of this intervention.
Discussion And Conclusion:
The intervention and decision-making process used in this study were family centered and may be applicable to gait intervention with other populations.
