The Role of a Pediatric Belt Cane in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment.

OBJECTIVE

Because children with cerebral/cortical visual impairment (CVI) may have difficulty using visual preview to guide safe navigation, including hazard detection, obstacle negotiation, and foot placement resulting in more cautious gait patterns, we evaluated whether wearing a Pediatric Belt Cane is associated with improved gait speed in children with CVI, with step length and a foot-mobility metric analyzed as exploratory outcomes.

METHODS

In this pre-post observational pilot, we analyzed smartphone videos from 11 children with clinicial diagnosed CVI at baseline and 8-week follow-up while wearing a Pediatric Belt Cane. Representative walking segments were processed using MediaPipe Pose to track bilateral feet and derive gait speed, step length, and foot-mobility. Outcomes were averaged across left/right per child and compared between baseline and follow-up using paired tests.

RESULTS

At follow-up, gait speed was higher than at baseline; step length and foot-mobility showed similar improvements. Child-level mean changes were: gait speed +66.0% (p<0.001), step length +49.8% (p<0.001), and foot-mobility +55.8% (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

In this pilot pre-post cohort, pediatric belt cane use was associated with improved gait speed, with supportive improvements in step length and foot-mobility. Larger controlled studies are needed to confirm generalizability and clinical impact.