Gait Improvement in Patients with Cerebral Palsy by Visual and Auditory Feedback

Objectives: To study the effects of gait training with visual and auditory feedback cues on the walking abilities of patients with gait disorders due to cerebral palsy. Materials and Methods: Visual and auditory feedback cues were generated by a wearable device, driven by inertial sensors. Ten randomly selected patients with gait disorders due to cerebral palsy and seven age-matched healthy individuals trained with visual feedback cues, while ten patients and eight age-matched healthy individuals trained with auditory feedback cues. Baseline performance (walking speed and stride length along a 10-m straight track) was measured before device use. Following 20-min training with the device and a 20-min break, performance without the devicewas measured again and compared with the baseline performance. Results: For the patients who trained with visual feedback, the average improvement was 21.70% +/- 36.06% in the walking speed and 8.72% +/- 9.47% in the stride length. For the patients who trained with auditory feedback, the average improvement was 25.43% +/- 28.65% in the walking speed and 13.58% +/- 13.10% in the stride length. For the healthy individuals who trained with visual feedback, the average improvement was -2.41% +/- 9.54% in the walking speed and -2.84% +/- 10.11% in the stride length. For the healthy individuals who trained with auditory feedback, the average improvement was 0.01% +/- 7.73% in the walking speed and -2.03% +/- 6.15% in the stride length. Conclusions: Training with visual and auditory feedback cues can improve gait parameters in patients with gait disorders due to cerebral palsy. This was contrasted by no improvement in age-matched healthy individuals.