Abstract
It is said that walking is one of the fundamental human movements. The purpose of this study was to investigate synchronization of infants walking with several tempos of auditory stimulus. The subjects were 31 preschool children who were from 5 to 6 years pld. They attempted to walk once in a 10mstraight line in response to auditory stimulus at given tempos of 80, 95, 110, 125, 140 and 155 beats per minute(bpm). The order of the given tempos was at random. The analysis objects were 10 steps after the first 5 steps following a halt at about the 5 steps. The delay time from the stimulus to touching the ground on his/her sole was measured at every step. The synchronization accuracy served as an average error of the delay time in each tempo. The main results and findings were summarized as follows: 1)According to the synchronization accuracy, it was more suitable for the infants to walk in response to 125 and 140 bpm than 80 and 95 bpm. 2)The relationship between slowness and fastness of the six tempos of auditory stimulus was correctly reproduced in 28 of the infants. However, it was not reproduced in the other 3. It was considered that the 28 infants were at a different developmental stage from the other 3 based on recognition of speed of tempo, nervous system, and so on. It seems that further examination is necessary on this point.
