Predictive value of age of walking for later motor performance in children with mental retardation.
For kids with ID, earlier independent walking predicts better balance skills on narrow beams years later.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tracked when kids with intellectual disability first walked alone. They then tested the same kids years later on a narrow balance beam.
The goal was simple: does earlier walking predict better balance later in life?
What they found
Kids who walked earlier did better on the beam-walking test. The link held up even after accounting for IQ level.
Earlier walking age was the strongest sign of future balance skill.
How this fits with other research
Enkelaar et al. (2012) show balance problems are common across the lifespan in ID. Ghaziuddin et al. (1996) help explain part of why: late walking starts a chain of weak balance skills.
Chezan et al. (2019) found motor training can still improve balance in kids with ID. That seems to clash with the 1996 finding that early walking sets a fixed path. The difference is design: the 1996 study was predictive, while 2019 tested what happens after planned practice. Balance is trainable, but starting earlier gives a head start.
Zhang et al. (2021) proved a full year of structured play boosts movement skills in severe ID. Their RCT extends the 1996 paper by showing motor competence can grow even if walking began late.
Why it matters
Ask parents when their child first walked. If the answer is late, add extra balance tasks to the therapy plan. You cannot change the past, but you can change the future with targeted practice.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of the present study was to clarify the predictive value of age of walking for later motor performance in children with mental retardation. While paying due attention to other factors, our investigation focused on the relationship between a subject's age of walking, and his or her subsequent beam-walking performance. The subjects were 85 children with mental retardation with an average age of 13 years and 3 months. Beam-walking performance was measured by a procedure developed by the authors. Five low beams (5 cm) which varied in width (12.5, 10, 7.5, 5 and 2.5 cm) were employed. The performance of subjects was scored from zero to five points according to the width of the beam that they were able to walk without falling off. From the results of multiple regression analysis, three independent variables were found to be significantly related to beam-walking performance. The age of walking was the most basic variable: partial correlation coefficient (PCC) = -45; standardized partial regression coefficient (SPRC) = -0.41. The next variable in importance was walking duration (PCC = 0.38; SPRC = 0.31). The autism variable also contributed significantly (PCC = 0.28; SPRC = 0.22). Therefore, within the age range used in the present study, the age of walking in children with mental retardation was thought to have sufficient predictive value, even when the variables which might have possibly affected their subsequent performance were taken into consideration; the earlier the age of walking, the better the beam-walking performance.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 1996 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2788.1996.803803.x