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Abstract
The purposes of this study were to provide a comprehensive description of the kinematic and kinetic characteristics of gait in 3 and 4 year old children and to determine the variability associated with the measurement of those characteristics. Eighteen children (7 boys and 11 girls) were tested on 2 days with 10 successful trials analyzed on each day. For each trial, the subject was asked to walk approximately 6 meters at a self-selected pace. Reflective tape markers were placed on the skin to identify selected anatomical landmarks and tibial and sacral sticks were worn to aid in defining rotations. Kinematic data including walking velocity, stride length, stride time, linear velocities of the body segments, relative angles between adjacent segments, and absolute angles between segments and a horizontal reference were derived from video records of the sagittal plane movements. A force platform was used to measure vertical, antero-posterior, and medio-lateral ground reaction forces. Statistical analyses included the determination of 95% confidence intervals and intraclass correlation coefficients to describe the variability, repeated measures analysis of variance to determine day, trial, and sex and age group differences, and correlation coefficients to describe the relationship between the variables measured. The results indicated a high degree of variability in the assessment of children's gait, especially from trial to trial within a given day. Age, age of walking, number of months walking, and anthropometric measures of height, leg length, and body weight were not highly correlated with the gait measures. Significant differences between boys and girls were observed for several ground reaction force, segmental velocity, and angular displacement and velocity variables. It was concluded that even at age 3 and 4, differences between boys and girls must be recognized and that in the assessment of children's gait patterns, the variability between trials must be considered.
