Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists March 2015 | Page 10
Motor Skills, Sensory Processing and Toe Walking
I ran across a blogpost recently on TheGaitGuys
discussing idiopathic toe walking in children. They
mentioned a recent article in the Journal of Child
Neurology that investigated the differences between
the motor skills and sensory processing abilities of
children who do and do not have an idiopathic toe
walking gait. Sixty children (30 with idiopathic toe
walking and 30 without), ages 4 though 8, were tested
with a number of norm referenced assessments.
The results indicated that when compared to children who did
not toe walk, children with an idiopathic toe walking gait had:
1. different Sensory Profile quadrant scores
2. poorer performance on the Bruininks–Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency
3. lower vibration perception threshold
4. poorer performance on the Standing Walking Balance subtest of the Sensory Integration and
Praxis Test.
TheGaitGuys blog post discusses how the researchers “found that only the areas of balance,
upper body coordination and bilateral coordination were areas found to be problematic in the toe
walkers. These 3 components require the integration of the tactile, vestibular and proprioceptive
systems as a team“.
The research does not reveal a direct cause for toe walking gait but it does provide some
suggestions as to why idiopathic toe walking may not be truly idiopathic after all.
References:
TheGaitGuys. Toe Walking in Children. Do you know what you are dealing with ? Part 2. Retrieved from the web on
2/3/15 at http://thegaitguys.tumblr.com/post/103571941844/toe-walking-in-children-do-you-know-what-you-are.
Cylie M. Williams, Paul Tinley, Michael Curtin, Suzanne Wakefield, and Sharon Nielsen
Is Idiopathic Toe Walking Really Idiopathic? The Motor Skills and Sensory Processing Abilities Associated With
Idiopathic Toe Walking Gait. J Child Neurol January 2014 29: 71-78, first published on January 24, 2013
doi:10.1177/0883073812470001
Title: 25+ Bilateral Coordination Exercises
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