Comparison of spatiotemporal gait parameters and their variability in typically developing children aged 2, 3, and 6 years

Abstract

Independent walking is an important milestone in a child’s development. The maturation of central nervous system, changes in body proportions, spatiotemporal parameters of gait and their variability change are dependent on age. The first aim of this study was to compare non-normalized and normalized spatiotemporal parameters and their variability in children. The second aim was to determine which spatiotemporal parameters are most affected by aging. Data from 64 typically developing children (age: 2.0–6.9 years), who walked at a self-selected speed along a 10m walkway, were collected with a motion capture system. Spatiotemporal parameters were normalized based on leg length. The main effect of the non-normalized walking speed revealed a moderate effect size (ES = 0.72) comparing 2- and 3-years-old, a large effect size comparing 2- and 6-years-old (ES = 1.77), and a large ES comparing 3- and 6-years-old (ES = 1.22). The normalized stride width parameter showed a statistically significant difference with large effect size between 2 vs 3 (ES = 1.00), 2 vs 6 (ES = 3.17), and 3 vs 6 (ES = 1.96). A statistically significant decrease in intra-individual gait variability with increasing age was observed in all parameters except for stride width. The variability of stride width may serve as a parameter in 2-year-olds to assess deviations from typically developing children. The assessment of effect size could be a useful indicator for clinical practice.