Effects of the stride length on the gait and intra-limbs coordination of healthy children aged 3 to 6

Body motion adjusts while the stride lengths changes, but few studies report those influences on the gait mechanism and intra-limbs coordination of children; therefore, the purpose of our study was to evaluate the gait mechanism and intra-limbs coordination of healthy children aged 3-6 under stride length adjusting, so as to add the knowledge of motor development of healthy children. Forty-five healthy children and ten adults walked on a 6m walkway at three stride lengths (short stride (SS), normal stride (NS) and long stride (LS)) and key kinematical parameters such as Euler angles and angular velocities were first recorded by CodaMotion 3D measure system; and then those two variables were applied to calculate the continuous relative phase (CPR) which specified coordination in the knee and ankle. Results showed that when transferring from short stride to normal stride long stride, children were to deal with by increasing stride length, Froude number, swing phase, and decreasing frequency. However, there were no significant differences between SS and LS in kinematical parameters; meanwhile, those significant variations were not found between age groups. In terms of intra-limb's coordination, there were no significant differences in values of relative phases within and between age groups. In conclusion, as early as age 3, young toddlers have already mastered the basic ability in adjusting gait while walking.