Acquisition of upper body stability during walking in toddlers

A cross-sectional study about the relationship between morphology and step-time parameters in children between 15 and 36 months

“…According to previous research independent walking is influenced by a variety of factors such as the maturation of the central nervous system [2,3], walking experience [4], changes in the muscle-to-fat ratio [5], postural stability of the head and trunk [6], musculo-skeletal growth [7], and body dimensions [3,4]. Several researchers emphasised the role of the biomechanical components of the body in determining the walking pattern [3,[8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…As a consequence, the oscillations in the frontal plane will decrease. In the children, large radii of gyration of head and pelvis, will lead to better trunk and head stabilization, and therefore, more stable visual, vestibular and somatosensory information [6]. O'Connor and Kuo [23] suggested that during walking integrative visual feedback is used more for controlling balance in the frontal plane then in the sagittal plane.…”

Changes in arm posture during the early acquisition of walking

“…The onset of independent walking was defined as the ability to make at least three steps without falling while starting and ending the sequence of steps in an upright unsupported position (Ledebt & Bril, 2000). As in the previously published papers of the authors (Bril & Brenière, 1992;Ledebt & Bril, 2000;Ledebt et al, 1995) the functional age (with regard to onset of walking) was used rather than age from birth in order to compare individual trends from infants who start to walk at different ages.…”

The affordance of gap crossing in toddlers

“…A second possible explanation discussed by Kingsnorth and Schmuckler was based on a theoretical model by Bril and Brenière (1992) which states that the development of walking consists of two phases. The first phase, which lasts for approximately 6 months, involves stabilisation of the trunk (Ledebt & Bril, 2000), while the second phase is regarded as fine tuning of gait parameters that lasts till the age of 7-8 years (Bril & Brenière, 1993;Cheron, Bengoetxea, Bouillot, Lacquaniti, & Dan, 2001). During the first phase, gait parameters are considered to have predictive value for motor performance, as has been shown for walking up and down slopes (Adolph, 1995), while during the second phase the amount of experience is considered to be more important.…”

“…The absence of relation between the gait parameters and the maximum gap in the present study could be due to the fact that all the infants were in the second phase of walking development. During the second phase, the gait parameters as step length and foot rotation have dramatically reduced their rate of development after respectively a rapid increase and rapid decrease that occurred during the first weeks of walking (Ledebt & Bril, 2000;Ledebt et al, 2004). As a consequence the chosen gait parameters might not have been the most appropriate to characterize walking skill during the second period.…”