AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE INDEPENDENT WALKING - ARE THERE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRETERM AND FULL-TERM INFANTS

In clinical practice walking independently has always been considered a major milestone in development. Nevertheless, Little attention has b een paid to the quality of movement expressed in the first attempts at walking free. Even when children achieve walking within a normal time range, some of them show features that are deviant. Early walking is difficult to judge, but at the same time may provide a sensitive means for detecting possible developmental impairments. The main aim of thi s paper is to provide a standardized clinical instrument for the quali tative assessment of early walking in a structured free field situatio n and to compare preterm and fullterm infants. Ail subjects were asses sed 14 days after being able to walk 5 meters independently. The study group consisted of 52 children, of whom 33 were born prematurely (fur ther distinguished in terms of being small- or appropriate-for-gestati onal age), and 19 were born fullterm. Judgments of walking performance were made in terms of optimal, near-optimal, near-poor or poor. After correction for age, the preterm group was still later in the onset of walking, but more importantly, showed a qualitatively different patte rn of locomotion. Those who were the youngest and small-for-gestationa l age were overrepresented in the near-poor and poor categories of wal king.