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Starting Down syndrome infants on treadmill training for just minutes a day can help them walk up to four or five months earlier than with the use of traditional physical therapy, a new U-M study finds.
It also suggests that infants who do high-intensity treadmill training may walk even sooner.
Getting infants walking is critical because so many other skills arise from locomotion: social skills, motor skills, advancement of perception and spatial cognition, says professor Dale Ulrich of the Division of Kinesiology and principal investigator on the treadmill training project.
“The key is if we can get them to walk earlier and better then they can explore their environment earlier and when you start to explore, you learn about the world around you,” Ulrich says. “Walking is a critical factor in development in every other domain.”
Infants with typical development learn to walk independently at about age 12 months. Babies with Down syndrome typically learn to take independent steps at 24-28 months.
Down syndrome occurs in about 1 in 700 births, and is one of the few disabilities that causes significant delays in all developmental domains, the paper states.
In the study, 30 infants randomly were assigned lower intensity, generalized treadmill training or high intensity, individualized treadmill training implemented in the homes by their parents. The training was used as a supplement to physical therapy.
Initially all parents worked with their infants on the treadmill for eight minutes a day, five days a week. A parent sat on a bench that straddles the treadmill and held the infant as the child took steps. All the parents began with low-intensity training, but after the infant could take 10, 20 and 30 steps per minute, intensity gradually was increased for half the infants.
High-intensity training included increasing the treadmill belt speed, using longer durations and adding light weights to the ankles, with intensity tailored to each child.
The study, “The Effects of Intensity of Treadmill Training on Developmental Outcomes and Stepping in Infants with Down Syndrome,” is available at www.ptjournal.org/papbyrecent.dtl.
