The development of mature gait patterns in children during walking and running
Margit M Bach1, Andreas Daffertshofer1, Nadia Dominici2
1Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Amsterdam Movement Sciences & Institute of Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Insights
Childhood running gait maturity, assessed by flight phases and energetics, doesn't always align with chronological age. Statistical clustering of gait characteristics provides a more accurate maturity metric.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Human Movement Science
Background:
- Understanding the developmental progression of walking and running in children is crucial for identifying typical motor development.
- Gait analysis, including kinematic and energetic parameters, offers insights into the underlying mechanisms of locomotion.
- Previous research has identified age-related changes in gait, but a comprehensive metric for maturity remains elusive.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the developmental maturity of walking and running in young children.
- To assess gait patterns for flight and double support phases, complemented by mechanical energetics.
- To classify gait maturity using a comprehensive set of gait characteristics.
Main Methods:
- 22 typically developing children (2-9 years) and 7 adults walked/ran on a treadmill.
- Measured double support and flight phases, and oscillations of potential and kinetic energy.
- Utilized 93 gait characteristics, principal component analysis, and hierarchical clustering for classification.
Main Results:
- Running with a flight phase increased with age, but did not reach adult levels (20% of gait cycle).
- Children appear to use a walk-run strategy during development.
- Clustering gait characteristics provided a detailed classification of gait maturity, showing deviations from adult gait that did not consistently correlate with chronological age.
Conclusions:
- Statistical assessment of gait maturity using multiple characteristics is more informative than chronological age alone.
- Gait maturity in children is a complex developmental process not solely dictated by age.
- The findings suggest a novel metric for evaluating gait development based on biomechanical parameters.
Purpose:
We sought to identify the developing maturity of walking and running in young children. We assessed gait patterns for the presence of flight and double support phases complemented by mechanical energetics. The corresponding classification outcomes were contrasted via a shotgun approach involving several potentially informative gait characteristics. A subsequent clustering turned out very effective to classify the degree of gait maturity.
Methods:
Participants (22 typically developing children aged 2-9 years and 7 young, healthy adults) walked/ran on a treadmill at comfortable speeds. We determined double support and flight phases and the relationship between potential and kinetic energy oscillations of the center-of-mass. Based on the literature, we further incorporated a total of 93 gait characteristics (including the above-mentioned ones) and employed multivariate statistics comprising principal component analysis for data compression and hierarchical clustering for classification.
Results:
While the ability to run including a flight phase increased with age, the flight phase did not reach 20% of the gait cycle. It seems that children use a walk-run-strategy when learning to run. Yet, the correlation strength between potential and kinetic energies saturated and so did the amount of recovered mechanical energy. Clustering the set of gait characteristics allowed for classifying gait in more detail. This defines a metric for maturity in terms of deviations from adult gait, which disagrees with chronological age.
Conclusions:
The degree of gait maturity estimated statistically using various gait characteristics does not always relate directly to the chronological age of the child.
