Patterns of Locomotor Development in Japanese Children during Early Infancy

Abstract

By applying the quantification method of the third type to the questionnairedata answered by the parents of 395 children, an analysis was made of the typical body motions, such as turning, crawling, creeping and shuffling, and their frequencies observed in infancy. A close distribution was observed in the category scores of highfrequency crawling, high-frequency creeping, high-frequency turning and lowfrequency shuffling. Therefore, these categories were classified into a group which illustrates prone-predisposed locomotion. With the application of this method to the grouping of the subjects, babies were classified into eight groups. Group G1 included 188 (47.6%) babies who showed the development of prone-predisposed locomotion. G2 and G3 included 134 (33.9%) babies whose locomotor development was characterized by low-frequency shuffling. G4 babies (31, or 7.8%) showed each motion of high-frequency, and G5 babies (19, or 4.8%) showed that of low-frequency. The locomotor development of the other babies (23, or 5.9%) who belonged to G6, G7 or G8 was characterized by high-frequency shuffling.