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.

TheGiatGuys 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

[subscribe2]



Title: 25+ Bilateral Coordination Exercises
By: Your Therapy Source

Summary: Download of 28 bilateral coordination exercise sheets including QR codes with links to video demonstration of exercises. Also includes hand out explaining bilateral coordination.

Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/bilateralcoordination.html