Kinematics of walking of six-year-old healthy children

The paper outlines the studies on gait of six-year-old children having a good general health state and the body posture in norm. The research was performed at the Center of Child’s Health Promotion and Fitness, whereas, the data analysis was carried out at the Center of Locomotion Research in Gdańsk. The study involved the utilization of a video-computerized system. Registration of gait was performed both in the sagittal and frontal plane. The gait study considered the following kinematic quantities: length and time of double pace, velocity, walking frequency, the width of feet positioning during gait and the angular values of body parts in joints. The kinematic analysis of translation motion quantities for the whole body demonstrated characteristic features of a healthy six-year-old child’s gait: the length of double pace was 83.6% of body height, the width of feet positioning during gait was 13.2% of the relative lower extremity length and 80% of the hip joint distance, the longitudinal foot axis (toes) abduction from the walking direction was 10°; the time of double pace was 0.92 s and included the support sequence of one extremity (61%) swing sequence (39%) and support sequence of both extremities (12%). During the support sequence for one extremity valgity of the calcaneal bone (the calf-tarsus angle was 8.5°) and a varus deformity of the femoral bone according to the calf in the knee joint (of 5°) were observed. The gait velocity was 1.09 m/s at a frequency of 1.09 Hz. The gathered data of walking velocity gave way to evolving a gait model for healthy six-year-olds. The obtained model of walking in the function of velocity will be used as a reference pattern for further studies on the gait of children with abnormalities in body posture.