Development of Independent Walking in Toddlers (original) (raw)

SUMMARYThe inverted pendulum model in which the centre of mass of the body vaults over the stance leg in an arc represents a basic mechanism of bipedal walking. Is the pendulum mechanism innate, or is it learnt through walking experience?We studied eight toddlers (about 1 year old) at their first unsupported steps,18 older children (1.3–13 years old), and ten adults. Two infants were also tested repeatedly over a period of 4 months before the onset of independent walking. Pendulum mechanism was quantified from the kinematics of the greater trochanter, correlation between kinetic and gravitational potential energy of the centre of body mass obtained from the force plate recordings, and percentage of recovery of mechanical energy. In toddlers,these parameters deviated significantly (P<10–5)from those of older children and adults, indicating that the pendulum mechanism is not implemented at the onset of unsupported locomotion. Normalising the speed with the Froude number showed that...

We have considerable knowledge about the mechanisms underlying compensation of Earth gravity during locomotion, a knowledge obtained from physiological, biomechanical, modeling, developmental, comparative, and paleoanthropological studies. By contrast, we know much less about locomotion and movement in general under sustained hypogravity. This lack of information poses a serious problem for human space exploration. In a near future humans will walk again on the Moon and for the first time on Mars. It would be important to predict how they will move around, since we know that locomotion and mobility in general may be jeopardized in hypogravity, especially when landing after a prolonged weightlessness of the space flight. The combination of muscle weakness, of wearing a cumbersome spacesuit, and of maladaptive patterns of locomotion in hypogravity significantly increase the risk of falls and injuries. Much of what we currently know about locomotion in hypogravity derives from the vide...

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 classif...