HHP doctoral student Vivian Rose's research on the differences in walking biomechanics of children and adults has been featured in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Vivian coauthored the paper titled, "Simple models highlight differences in the walking biomechanics of young children and adults" with Dr. Christopher Arellano.
 |
| Vivian Rose |
Most of the devices currently available to help children with disabilities walk are simply scaled-down versions of the designs used for adults, taking no account of the differences between adult and kids’ movements. Could the devices be improved if we knew more about how kids walk? Vivian's research shows the differences in walking biomechanics between children and adults and might lead to a better understanding of the needs of children with disabilities.
Below is a excerpt from the article:
‘Vivian is amazing with kids’, says Arellano, recalling her patience – developed helping youngsters learn to walk with assistive devices – as she worked with the 5–6 year old recruits. One of her main challenges was convincing the youngsters to breathe through a tube to record how much oxygen they were consuming while walking. ‘We first tried out a mask, but the children did not like that option, so Vivian did lots of research figuring out the size of the mouthpiece and nose clips, so they were comfortable’, says Arellano.
..
‘The kids were all pretty excited but, overall, pretty cooperative and some got a kick out of seeing their “avatar” skeleton move around and dance on the screen’, Rose recalls, adding that all eight of the young volunteers were keen to return to the lab the following day to complete the experiments.
Read the entire article in the Journal of Experimental Biology
Simple models highlight differences in the walking biomechanics of young children and adults