1. Vertical stiffness and balance control of two-legged hopping in-place in children with and without Down syndrome.
- Author
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Beerse, Matthew and Wu, Jianhua
- Subjects
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HOPPING (Locomotion) , *POSTURAL balance , *MOVEMENT disorders in children , *DOWN syndrome , *MOTOR ability , *BIOMECHANICS , *PHYSIOLOGY , *DIAGNOSIS of Down syndrome , *CHILD development , *DIAGNOSTIC imaging , *COMPUTERS in medicine , *PSYCHOLOGY of movement , *REFERENCE values , *VIDEO recording , *WEIGHT-bearing (Orthopedics) - Abstract
Background: Children with Down syndrome (DS) are known for their reduced balance control, and typically take longer to develop motor skills and display less coordinated movement patterns. Hopping in-place is a gross motor skill requiring whole-body vertical stiffness and horizontal movement control, particularly when attempting to modify hopping frequency. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the hopping capacity of children with DS.Research Question: The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of children with DS aged 5-11 years old to continuously hop in-place on two legs and compare their biomechanical patterns to those of typically developing (TD) children.Methods: This observational study included 14 children with DS and 16 TD children. Subjects were asked to complete 20 s trials of two-legged hopping in-place at a self-selected frequency, and four metronome guided conditions: preferred (self-selected frequency), moderate (20% increase), fast (40% increase) and slow (20% decrease). Two sample independent t-tests were conducted on whole-body vertical stiffness, horizontal center-of-mass movement, and toe displacement between hops for the self-selected hopping condition and two-way ANOVAs were used for the metronome conditions.Results and Significance: Our findings suggest that children with DS might not be able to continuously hop in-place until the age of 7 years old, and were unable to hop for as long in duration as their TD peers. Children with DS self-selected a faster hopping frequency, and demonstrated an increased medial-lateral center-of-mass movement during the stance phase of hopping, suggesting reduced balance control. Moreover, children with DS were unable to correctly modify their hopping frequency when cued by a metronome and exhibited an inability to modulate whole-body vertical stiffness and constrain horizontal or vertical movement. These results demonstrate the utility of a future hopping intervention to improve whole-body vertical stiffness and balance control in children with DS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2018
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