Spatio-temporal gait characteristics in children with Tourette syndrome: a preliminary study.
Kids with Tourette syndrome keep the beat but miss the mark on step length.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wen-Yu et al. (2014) watched kids walk across a lab walkway.
They compared children with Tourette syndrome to same-age peers without tics.
Motion cameras measured every step to see if TS changed how the foot landed.
What they found
Kids with TS took steps that were not the same length each time.
Their timing stayed steady, so they did not trip or limp.
The irregularity was small but clear on the computer graphs.
How this fits with other research
Hasan et al. (2017) saw a different gait problem in autism: the ground pushed back on the foot in an uneven way.
Gong et al. (2020) also found flat, uneven steps in preschoolers with ASD.
All three studies show tiny, measurable gait quirks that parents rarely notice.
The TS paper adds that tics may affect space, not time, while ASD seems to affect both space and force.
Why it matters
If you work with a child who has TS and seems clumsy, check step length before blaming inattention.
A simple hallway walk test with tape on the floor can show if steps vary.
Share the number with physical therapy if you refer out; early data helps them target balance or strength work.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Earlier studies had suggested that variability of stride length in gait is a pathological sign of basal ganglia disease. Some evidence implicates the involvement of the basal ganglia and related thalamocortical circuitry in Tourette syndrome (TS). To date, the gait of subjects with TS has only discussed in case reports. This investigation compared the spatial and temporal gait characteristics of a sample of children with TS (N=8) with those of healthy controls (HC; N=8). All children were instructed to walk under two speed conditions: "preferred" and "fastest." Gait parameters were measured using an electronic walkway. Spatial and temporal gait parameters were compared using a two-way (group)×(conditions) repeated measures ANOVA. The preliminary results suggested that similar to HC children, children with TS were capable of regulating temporal characteristics of gait based on walking speed. They also exhibited subtle gait anomalies such as irregular step length, as evidenced by significant differences in step length differential (p=0.003), detectable despite the small sample size. These findings warrant further investigation into the gait control of children with TS.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.04.025