A child’s manner of walking can tell a doctor a lot about their health and development. But the transition from tottering toddler to strutting teen is not as universal as you might think.
Depending on where in the world a child grows up, their gait may mature in a slightly different way.
In South Africa, for instance, researchers have found elementary school-aged kids already show a mature angle of hip rotation when they walk. Yet in France, it takes kids until about age 12 to develop a similarly mature gait pattern.
A new study from Japan finds yet more subtle differences in the way we learn to walk like adults.
Related on the SLP
Unlike children in South Africa, children in Japan did not show a significant change to their hip rotation movements as they aged.
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“Hence,” the authors of the new study write, “the gait kinematics and kinetics of Japanese children aged 6–12 years differ from those reported in children from other countries. Age-related changes in the cadence and step and stride lengths appear to be similar worldwide; however, the normalized values slightly differ from those in our study.”
