What Does Prone Skateboarding in the Newborn Tell Us About the Ontogeny of Human Locomotion?

• Autores: Vincent Forma, David I. Anderson, Joëlle Provasi, Evelyne Soyez, Mélina Martial, Viviane Huet, Lionel Granjon, François Goffinet, Marianne Barbu-Roth
• Localización: Child development, ISSN 0009-3920, Vol. 90, Nº. 4, 2019, págs. 1286-1302
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The crawling behavior of sixty 2-day-old newborns was studied while they were supported prone on a mini skateboard and on a pediatric mattress without additional support. Analyses of the number and types of limb movements and their characteristics, the coactivation of limb pairs, and the displacement across the surface, revealed that newborns can crawl with locomotor patterns similar to those documented during quadrupedal locomotion in animals and human adults. This was particularly apparent on the skateboard. This discovery suggests that locomotor circuitry underlying quadrupedal locomotion develops during fetal life. Drawing upon other evidence for a quadrupedal organization underlying bipedal gait, we argue that early quadrupedal training may enhance interventions designed to hasten the onset of independent walking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]