Category Archives: 2017

Wearing textured insoles in walking shoes improves ballet dancers’ balance: Benefits accrue despite injury history

Textured insoles worn in walking shoes can improve the dynamic postural balance of young ballet dancers both with and without previous injury, according to study data from Canberra, Australia, which also suggested textured insoles can be useful as a routine intervention.

By Katie Bell

Continue reading

Posted in November, Pediatric Clinical News, 2017 | Leave a comment

Preteen tennis players prefer roomier footwear than adults: Widest shoes rated most comfortable

Young male tennis players prefer a wider shoe with more interior volume, while upper stiffness matters less, according to a new study from France that correlated the players’ perceptions of comfort with measurements taken with innovative textile pressure sensors.

By Hank Black

Continue reading

Posted in November, Pediatric Clinical News, 2017 | Leave a comment

Cutting edge: Treatment for kids goes high tech

From a skateboard-like motion-sensing device that helps infants with CP learn to crawl to powered exoskeletons that sync with muscles to new advanced-imaging views of motor and sensory processing, technology for pediatric care is on the move. Here are some of the highlights.

By Hank Black

Continue reading

Posted in 2017, Pediatric Feature, November | Leave a comment

Firm foundation: Better balance for young patients

Children with neurological conditions often have balance issues, and healthy kids can struggle, too. Interventions should be tail­ored to their short attention spans and need for feedback, and include devices that improve alignment and stability and training to enhance strength and equilibrium.

By P.K. Daniel

Continue reading

Posted in Pediatric Feature, November, 2017 | Leave a comment

Dyslexia affects ability to adjust to impaired sensory feedback

Kids struggle to maintain balance – Children with dyslexia are unable to compensate with other available inputs when sensory feedback to the soles of their feet, their vision, or both is less informative, resulting in poor postural stability, according to research from Paris, France, which may have implications in training to help these children improve their use of sensory inputs.

By Katie Bell

Continue reading

Posted in August, Pediatric Clinical News, 2017 | Leave a comment

Parents say comfort, easy use are clubfoot compliance keys

All devices present challenges – A recently developed pediatric orthosis for Ponseti night bracing received positive ratings from parents in a small Swedish study of children with idiopathic clubfoot who had compliance problems or relapse with one of two earlier bracing devices, a foot abduction brace (FAB) or a dynamic knee ankle foot orthosis (KAFO).

By Hank Black

Continue reading

Posted in Pediatric Clinical News, 2017, August | Leave a comment

Weak hip extensors contribute to ankle sprains in soccer players      

Findings support use of strengthening – Hip strengthening may be as important for preventing lateral ankle sprains in youth soccer players as it is in adults, according to a recent Belgian study.

By Jill R. Dorson

Continue reading

Posted in August, Pediatric Clinical News, 2017 | Leave a comment

ITW update: Etiological clues, collaborative care

Researchers still haven’t unraveled the ‘I’ in ITW, or idiopathic toe walking, but studies continue to point to neurodevelopmental  and genetic links. Here, we review recent literature and experts explain how they assess patients’ history and biomechanics for information to guide treatment.

By Larry Hand

Continue reading

Posted in Pediatric Feature, August, 2017 | Leave a comment

Growth plates and injury in skeletally immature athletes

In this follow-up to “Growth-plate injuries: A diagnostic challenge,” (May, page 15) we continue our look at physeal trauma, exploring growth-plate issues in anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, and further examining these injuries’ impact on the knees, ankles, and feet of youth athletes.

By Shalmali Pal

Continue reading

Posted in Pediatric Feature, August, 2017 | Leave a comment

Genetic mutations in CMT help predict phenotypic differences      

Ankle strength commonly affected – Researchers are inching closer to being able to predict specific symptoms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) based on a child’s genotype, but the variability found in a recent Australian study suggests that, for now, patients should still be assessed and managed individually.

By Greg Gargiulo

Continue reading

Posted in 2017, May, Pediatric Clinical News | Leave a comment