Walking-induced muscle fatigue impairs postural control in adolescents with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy.

Researchers had 12 teens with unilateral spastic CP and 12 typical peers walk on a treadmill for 15 minutes. The speed felt comfortable to each teen.

Before and after the walk the team tested knee-muscle strength and balance on a force plate. They wanted to see if light walking tired the CP group more.

After the short walk the CP teens lost about one-third of their knee strength. Their balance sway doubled. The typical group showed no change.

The fatigue hit fast—within 15 minutes of easy walking—and made balance clearly worse.

Deserno et al. (2017) also saw uneven gait in another neuro-motor disorder, DCD. Both studies use lab tools to show that small motor flaws can be measured and tracked.

Osório et al. (2025) found higher step-to-step variability in autistic toddlers. Together the papers show that gait control is shaky across several diagnoses, not just CP.

Rivilis et al. (2012) watched kids with DCD lose cardio fitness over years. Damien’s team shows the flip side: one quick bout of walking can instantly tire muscles. Acute fatigue and long-term decline are two faces of the same motor-capacity problem.

If you run sessions with teens who have CP, schedule balance drills before any long walking. A short walk to "warm up" may actually exhaust the knee muscles and set up falls. Split long corridors into shorter chunks and re-check balance after each one. This simple timing change can keep therapy safe and effective.