Citation

Hagmann-von Arx P, Manicolo O, Lemola S, Grob A. Front. Psychol. 2016; 7: 352.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Basel , Basel, Switzerland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00352

PMID

27014158

PMCID

PMC4785135

Abstract

Age-dependent gait characteristics and associations with cognition, motor behavior, injuries, and psychosocial functioning were investigated in 138 typically developing children aged 6.7-13.2 years (M = 10.0 years). Gait velocity, normalized velocity, and variability were measured using the walkway system GAITRite without an additional task (single task) and while performing a motor or cognitive task (dual task). Assessment of children's cognition included tests for intelligence and executive functions; parents reported on their child's motor behavior, injuries, and psychosocial functioning. Gait variability (an index of gait regularity) decreased with increasing age in both single- and dual-task walking. Dual-task gait decrements were stronger when children walked in the motor compared to the cognitive dual-task condition and decreased with increasing age in both dual-task conditions. Gait alterations from single- to dual-task conditions were not related to children's cognition, motor behavior, injuries, or psychosocial functioning.

Language: en