Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Transitioning From The Level Surface To Stairs In Children With And Without Down Syndrome: Motor Strategy And Anticipatory Locomotor Adjustments, Huaqing Liang, Xiang Ke, Jianhua Wu

Physical Therapy Faculty Research

Background: Children with Down syndrome (DS) show underdeveloped motor strategy and anticipatory locomotor adjustments (ALA) before crossing an obstacle. Stairs presents another important setting to study environment navigation and motor adaptation. Inclusion of external ankle load is often used to perturb the stability of a system and observe the emergence of new patterns.

Research question: How do stair height and external ankle load affect motor strategy and ALA in 5-to-11-year-old children with typical development (TD) and with DS when approaching the stairs?

Methods: Fourteen children with DS and 14 age- and sex-matched children with TD participated in the study. They …

Locomotor Adjustments During Stair Ascent In Children With Down Syndrome: Comparison Between Walking And Crawling Strategies, Huaqing Liang, Jianhua Wu

Physical Therapy Faculty Research

Stair negotiation provides an important yet different paradigm to study environment navigation. As one has constantly move himself up while adjusting step length and foot placement due to the stair constraints, this paradigm is ideal to study motor strategy and adaptation in children with and without disabilities. Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic condition and causes significant delays in motor and cognitive development. Children with DS show poor postural control and less efficient gait patterns. When negotiating obstacles, they often select a more conservative strategy (i.e. crawling instead of walking). This study aimed to examine motor strategy and …

Transitioning From Level Surface To Stairs In Children With And Without Down Syndrome: Locomotor Adjustments During Stair Ascent, Huaqing Liang, Xiang Ke, Jianjia Wu

Physical Therapy Faculty Research

Background: Children with Down syndrome (DS) often show underdeveloped motor ability and adaptation. Stair ascent is a common task to examine locomotor function and external ankle load is often used to perturb the stability of a system and observe the emergence of new patterns.

Research question: How do stair height and external ankle load affect locomotor adjustments in 5-to-11-year-old children with typical development (TD) and with DS during stair ascent?

Methods: Fourteen children with DS and 14 age- and sex-matched children with TD participated in this study. They walked along a 5-m walkway and ascended 3-step staircases of different heights …