The effects of direction and speed on treadmill walking in typically developing children.

Background: Backward walking and fast walking have distinctive gait patterns in adults; however, there is minimal literature describing these gait modifications in typically developing children. Additionally, most of previous research focused on overground backward walking, but not on a treadmill.

Research Question: How do typically developing children adapt their gait patterns, including spatiotemporal parameters, joint kinematics, and muscle activation, to changes in direction and speed during treadmill walking?

Methods: We recruited 19 children (10 M/9 F) aged 6-12 years.

Neuromuscular response to a single session of whole-body vibration in children with cerebral palsy: A pilot study.

Background: Whole-body vibration (WBV) is a relative new intervention paradigm that could reduce spasticity and improve motor function in children with cerebral palsy (CP). We investigated neuromuscular response to a single session of side-alternating WBV with different amplitudes in children with CP.

Methods: Ten children with spastic CP aged 7-17 years at GMFCS level I-III participated in this pilot study.

Improvement in Overground Walking After Treadmill-Based Gait Training in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.

Background: Agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) is a rare congenital brain defect that produces a wide variety of cognitive and motor impairments. Literature regarding the response of pediatric populations with ACC to physical rehabilitation is scarce. Treadmill-based gait training (TT) has been shown to improve walking ability in some pediatric populations but has not been investigated in children with ACC.

Variability of spatiotemporal gait parameters in children with and without Down syndrome during treadmill walking.

Background: Increasing walking speed and including bilateral external ankle load have been shown to improve aspects of the gait pattern of children with Down syndrome (DS). However, it is unknown if speed and ankle load improves the cycle-to-cycle variability in a similar way.

Research Question: How do changes of walking speed and external ankle load impact spatiotemporal variability during treadmill walking in children with and without DS?

Methods: Thirteen children with DS (aged 7-10 years) and thirteen age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children participated in this study.

Feasibility of event-related potential methodology to evaluate changes in cortical processing after rehabilitation in children with cerebral palsy: a pilot study.

This study examined the feasibility of using event-related potentials (ERPs) to measure changes in cortical processing following an established rehabilitative intervention (constraint-induced movement therapy, CIMT) for children with cerebral palsy (CP). Sixteen participants with a diagnosis of hemiparetic CP, with a median age of 6 years, were assessed pre and immediately post CIMT and at 6-month follow-up, using a picture-word match/mismatch discrimination task and standard neurobehavioral measures. Intervention effects were evident in improved performance on behavioral tests of sensory and motor function and the increased mean ERP amplitude of the N400 match/mismatch response on the side ipsilateral to the lesion.