KINEMATICS OF NORMAL CHILD LOCOMOTION - STATISTICAL STUDY BASED ON TV DATA

In order to study pathological gait, one must first know something about the norm. Little quantitative information exists on normal childhood gait and thus the need was felt to investigate some of the kinematics of normal child locomotion. Twenty children were studied ranging in age from six to thirteen years (mean 10.2 years). A TV-computer system of data collection and analysis was used to obtain a range of parameters including pace period, stride length, ranges of joint motion, velocity and acceleration. It was found that while some variables (joint angle ranges) were identical to adult values, others such as linear displacements, velocities and accelerations were almost consistently larger for the children. Therefore, although children emulate adult gait in some aspects, there are differences. Thus, further investigation involving children's anthropometrics and more involved gait parameters is indicated. © 1979.