Laura Peeters

Trunk, head and pelvis interactions in healthy children | 61 3 Maturation Figure 8 shows the correlation between age and total trunk movement when reaching forward and laterally. Significant, moderate to strong correlations were found in 10 out of 12 reaching tasks, where younger children used more trunk movement compared to older children. However, a relatively high variability could be seen in the younger children and this variability was higher in reaching forward compared to reaching laterally. The slopes of the regression lines indicated a decrease of trunk ROM of maximal -1.94 degrees/year for the ”F-S-0” task forward and minimal of -0.54 degrees/year for the “N-S-500” task laterally. Reaching height Reaching distance Object weight N-S-0 / N-E-0 N-S-500 / N-E-500 F-S-0 / F-E-0 N-S-0 / F-S-0 N-E-0 / F-E-0 N-S-0 / N-S-500 N-E-0 / N-E-500 Sagittal plane Pelvis 0.221 0.879 0.346 0.061 0.627 0.475 0.248 Lower lumbar 0.058 0.026 0.548 <0 .001 0.005 <0.001 0.001 Upper lumbar 0.002 0.002 0.189 0.002 0.034 0.030 0.003 Lower thoracic 0.122 0.002 0.083 0.093 0.158 0.069 0.003 Upper thoracic 0.045 0.946 0.005 <0 .001 0.001 0.006 0.619 Frontal plane Pelvis 0.443 0.761 0 .007 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 Lower lumbar 0.054 0.013 0.527 <0.001 0.006 0.668 0.121 Upper lumbar 0.054 0.093 <0.001 0.007 0.932 0.074 0.757 Lower thoracic <0 .001 <0.001 <0.001 0.003 0.032 0.001 0.003 Upper thoracic 0.017 0.026 0.004 <0 .001 <0.001 0.001 0.007 Transverse plane Pelvis 0.201 0.301 0 .001 0.032 <0.001 <0.001 0.001 Lower lumbar 0.025 0.855 0.016 0.376 0.833 0.732 0.055 Upper lumbar 0.696 0.476 0.648 0.209 0.549 0.288 0.427 Lower thoracic 0.001 0.109 0.382 <0.001 0.201 0.001 0.006 Upper thoracic 0.677 0.925 0.459 0.020 0.013 0.242 0.201 Table 2 P-values for the effects of reaching height, distance and object weight on segment range of motion, when reaching laterally. Abbreviations in reaching tasks: N = near target, F = far target, S = shoulder height, E = eye height, 0 = 0 gram object weight, 500 = 500 gram object weight.