Do sit-to-stand performance changes during gait acquisition?

Alana Maria Ferreira Guimarães Bastos,Nelci Adriana Cicuto Ferreira Rocha,Carolina Souza Neves Da Costa

doi:10.1590/s1980-65742014000200008

Alana Maria Ferreira Guimarães Bastos, Nelci Adriana Cicuto Ferreira Rocha + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-65742014000200008

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Abstract

In a child's daily routine, sit-to-stand (STS) is a prerequisite activity for many functional tasks. The relationship between gait and other abilities has been pointed out by many authors, but there is no study investigating the changes in STS during gait acquisition in children. The purpose of this study was to analyse, in healthy children, changes that occur in STS performance during gait acquisition. Five healthy children were initially assessed with an average age of 13.6 months. The kinematics in STS movement performance of the children was evaluated longitudinally during different periods of walking experience: children who have not acquired independent walking, 8.2 (±8.4) days of independent walking experience, and 86.2 (±8.7) days of independent walking experience. At the gait acquisition period we found a significant decrease in the final trunk flexion angle and an increase in amplitude of the trunk flexion. The walking experience may have changed the execution of the STS movement.

Highlights

Sit-to-stand movement (STS) and independent walking are fundamental skills in the process of motor development as they maximise children’s daily routine activities, expanding their possibilities of action in the environment (McMillan & Scholz, 2000)
Independent STS movement performance was evaluated using kinematic analysis during three different periods of walking experience (Chen et al, 2008), and walking experience was defined as being the time elapsed since its acquisition: Period 1: Children had not yet acquired independent walking, but they managed to perform STS movement independently
Forty-five trials of STS movements were recorded, with a mean of three trials for each child being used for analysis in each period

Summary

Introduction

Sit-to-stand movement (STS) and independent walking are fundamental skills in the process of motor development as they maximise children’s daily routine activities, expanding their possibilities of action in the environment (McMillan & Scholz, 2000). Both skills are often jointly performed, but they require different postural challenges. STS movement is a transitional movement to the upright posture that requires movement of the center of mass from a larger to a smaller base of support. Children have to bear their own weight, detect ground irregularities and maintain stability, alignment of body segments and muscle force in a controlled challenged way (Ivanenko, Dominici, & Lacquaniti, 2007)

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