The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 63, Issue 9 1452-1457, Copyright © 1981 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Changes in the gait patterns of growing children
RJ Beck, TP Andriacchi, KN Kuo, RW Fermier and JO Galante
We observed the gait patterns, including time and distance measurements and
ground reaction forces, of fifty-one normal children. Thirty-three children
were retested once at one, three, six, nine, or twelve months, over a
two-year period, for a total of eighty-four gait observations. Time and
distance measurements and foot-ground reaction force measurements were
found to be dependent on walking speed and the age of the child. An
increase in height with age was found to be the major factor in determining
the changes in time and distance measurements with age. For example, we
found that average stride length was 76 per cent of the child's height at a
walking speed of 1.04 meters per second regardless of the child's age. In
contrast, the three components of foot-ground reaction force (vertical,
lateral, and forward directions) were observed to vary with age up to five
years even when normalized. After the age of five years an adult pattern of
ground reaction force emerged. In addition, we found that walking patterns
of children who were more than found years old did not vary when retested
within a three-month period. However, for children less than four years
old, measurements were found to change due to growth during the three-month
period to retesting. Similar changes due to growth were found in children
more than four years old who were tested at intervals more than three
months apart. This important finding may be clinically useful in the study
of the effects of treatment.
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