Gait Cycle Duration: A Determining Factor of Gait Maturity in Children -

Aim: To explore one of the temporal characteristic of running gait (Gait Cycle Duration) in children and determine its relationship with the selected body characteristics Methodology: Twenty school going children of 5 years age consisting of both genders were selected for the study. To obtain the required data, an experimental setup was designed consisting of caliberated running path and a cannon camcorder Legria SF10 operating at shutter speed of 1/2000 and frame rate of 50 Hz. The obtained video data was analyzed using Silicocoach7 motion analysis software. The statistical analysis was done by SPSSv 17.0 to determine the relationship of gait cycle duration with the selected body characteristics. Results: No significant relationship was found between the gait cycle duration and body characteristics, however a striking feature got extracted that the gait cycle duration of 5 years old children was shorter than that of adults. Conclusion: The results concluded from the study could be of great use to clinicians to assess the gait maturation or abnormality in the gait of children. Further, the changes in the gait cycle duration could reflect improvement in gait over time..