Walking to the beat of their own drum: how children and adults meet timing constraints
Date
2015
Authors
Gill, Simone V.
Version
OA Version
Citation
Gill SV (2015) Walking to the Beat of Their Own Drum: How Children and Adults Meet Timing Constraints. PLoS ONE 10(5): e0127894. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127894
Abstract
Walking requires adapting to meet task constraints. Between 5- and 7-years old, children's walking approximates adult walking without constraints. To examine how children and adults adapt to meet timing constraints, 57 5- to 7-year olds and 20 adults walked to slow and fast audio metronome paces. Both children and adults modified their walking. However, at the slow pace, children had more trouble matching the metronome compared to adults. The youngest children's walking patterns deviated most from the slow metronome pace, and practice improved their performance. Five-year olds were the only group that did not display carryover effects to the metronome paces. Findings are discussed in relation to what contributes to the development of adaptation in children.
Description
License
© 2015 Simone V. Gill. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited