Children Age 7 Complete Complex Gait and Postural Tasks Differently Than Adults Under Dual-Task Conditions

ABSTRACT

Healthy children (7 years old) and adults (20 years old) completed a simultaneous balancing, reaching, and cognitive task while standing and during gait. Cognitive accuracy rate for children and adults was similar for both postures; however, response latency was greater for children than adults. While standing, trunk, upper arm, and forearm segments moved as individual segments in adults; however, articulated control of the upper arm and forearm in children was not evident. Adults and children showed evidence of articulated segmental control during gait. Absolute gait velocity (m/s) was significantly slower for children; however, there was no effect of age on step length. Children 7 years old can perform a simultaneous motor and cognitive task but their performance strategies do not yet match young adults.

Keywords:

• cognitive task
• gait
• multitask
• posture
• segmental control

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are very grateful to the parents and children who spent their time to participate in this study and appreciate all of the student volunteers of the University Gait Biomechanics Laboratory for their help with data collection and analysis. The authors thank Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo for her assistance and feedback with the experimental design.

Funding

This project was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant awarded to Dr. Vallis and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship awarded to Ms. Hinton.