Treadmill gait training

As a pediatric physical therapist working in public schools, I want my students to move, and to move in the same way their peers do. When Rifton came out with the treadmill gait trainer, I was eager to explore increasing exercise intensity for my teenagers with mobility impairments. I was fortunate enough to get funding for one in my school. I went to the literature to look for protocols using gait treadmills for youth with disabilities and did not find much.

Motor learning suggests that practice, repetition and task specificity are instrumental to task improvement. Sometimes extending the practice of therapeutic activities beyond the clinical environment and into the home is a great way to apply these principles and reinforce the gains made in the clinic. Knowing this, I was interested to read a recent study looking at children with cerebral palsy and the...

Young children with disabilities respond well to early therapeutic intervention. Literature regarding cortical plasticity in the developing brain points to encouraging therapy results as well. Not surprisingly then, initial research on treadmill training in this population is positive, indicating quicker and more competent acquisition of gait skills. However, for children, access to treadmills and a...