Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons^™

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 …