EVALUATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDEPENDENT WALKING IN INFANTS USING INERTIAL SENSORS

Many studies have been observing infants at the onset of walking in order to evaluate the development of different strategies and coordination [Kubo, 2006, Roncesvalles, 2000, Yvanenko, 2005]. These studies regard most of the times small groups (<10) and only few studies observed longitudinally the evolution of independent walking (on 2 or 5 subjects) [Bril, 1992, Yvanenko, 2004]). To the authors knowledge these observations were always made using optoelectronic or video-based data. The use of wireless inertial sensors is more practical when aiming at the measurements of large populations. Moreover inertial sensors can be worn under the clothes facilitating the experiments with infants who are not distracted by markers and can freely walk and move in any environment. The aim of the present study is to observed longitudinally a large group of infants (>20) using inertial sensors over a 5-months period after onset of independent walking (period in which the most dramatic changes of maturation of many gait parameters occurs [Yvanenko, 2007]. This database will allow evaluating the changes in gait temporal parameters, postural stability and coordination at the beginning of independent walking. Moreover it will permit to evaluate when and how the development of pendulum mechanism occurs. The results presented here are only preliminary because they refer to five infants and only one test for each one.