Muscle capacity to accelerate the body during gait varies with foot position in cerebral palsy.

Background: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often have altered gait patterns compared to their typically developing peers. These gait patterns are characterized based on sagittal plane kinematic deviations; however, many children with CP also walk with altered transverse plane kinematics.

Research Question: How do both altered skeletal alignment and kinematic deviations affect muscles' capacity to accelerate the body during gait?

Methods: A three-dimensional gait analysis was completed for 18 children with spastic CP (12.

Evaluation of a method to scale muscle strength for gait simulations of children with cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological disorder that results in life-long mobility impairments. Musculoskeletal models used to investigate mobility deficits for children with CP often lack subject-specific characteristics such as altered muscle strength, despite a high prevalence of muscle weakness in this population. We hypothesized that incorporating subject-specific strength scaling within musculoskeletal models of children with CP would improve accuracy of muscle excitation predictions in walking simulations.

Strength Training Effects on Muscle Forces and Contributions to Whole-Body Movement in Cerebral Palsy.

Strength training is often prescribed for children with cerebral palsy (CP); however, links between strength gains and mobility are unclear. Nine children (age 14 ± 3 years; GMFCS I-III) with spastic CP completed a 6-week strength-training program. Musculoskeletal gait simulations were generated for four children to assess training effects on muscle forces and function.

Changes in lower extremity strength may be related to the walking speed improvements in children with cerebral palsy after gait training.

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) has a high probability of resulting in lower extremity strength and walking deficits. Numerous studies have shown that gait training has the potential to improve the walking abilities of these children; however, the factors governing these improvements are unknown.

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between change in lower extremity strength, walking speed and endurance of children with CP following gait training.

Changes in Mobility and Muscle Function of Children with Cerebral Palsy after Gait Training: A Pilot Study.

The goal of this pilot study was to characterize the effects of gait training on the capacity of muscles to produce body accelerations and relate these changes to mobility improvements seen in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Five children (14 years ± 3 y; GMFCS I-II) with spastic diplegic CP participated in a 6-week gait training program. Changes in 10-m fast-as-possible walking speed and 6-minute walking endurance were used to assess changes in mobility.