A study on the coordination pattern of four limbs in creeping, running and walking in early childhood

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clalify the development of locomotor movement in early childhood analyzing the coordination patterns of four limbs in motion. The coordination patterns of four limbs were defined as backward cross type, cross type, both of which named by IWAMOTO and TOMITA (1966), and cross To observe the movement sequence of four limbs of children, an experiment was designed employing creeping, running and walking. The subject was instructed by his nurse to walk, then to run quickly. Lastly he was asked to creep like a baby. Total of 162 nursery school children from two to six years of age took part in this experiment. Movements were recorded by 16mm cinecamera (24 frames/sec) or video tape recorder (30 frames/sec).The results were summarized as follows:1) The grater part of children aged from two to three years backward cross creeping. With the advance of age, coordination pattern was somewhat changed. More than a half of the children, five-year-old and six-year-old, showed cross in creeping.2) Some of the two-year-old children were unable to run. Sequential movements of four limbs of children who were able to run were expressed mostly as forward cross type. Some of the five-year-old and six-year-old children backward cross or synchronized cross in running, and their steps and arm swings in running were somewhat greater than that of the children who forward cross type .3) More than a half of the two-year-old children their progression without arm swing when they were instructed to walk. With the advance in age, the children who were able to walk with arm swing increased in number, and almost all of them forward cross in walking. A few children synchronized cross and no one backward cross in walking. It seemed that the forward cross walking which had been observed in matured walking of man were obtained in this early childhood.