Chicago: The U.S. kinesiology researchers have found that treadmills can help Down syndrome infants walk sooner.

The treadmill exercise assist the babies learn to walk up to four or five months earlier than traditional physical therapy alone. More intensive training helps the babies to take steps even sooner.

Children with Down syndrome don’t learn walking until 24-28 months.   

Dale Ulrich of the University of Michigan's Division of Kinesiology said that getting them walking sooner can help improve their social skills, motor skills, perception and spatial cognition.

Ulrich said, “The key is if we can get them to walk earlier and better then they can explore their environment earlier and when you start to explore, you learn about the world around you. Walking is a critical factor in development in every other domain.”

Down syndrome occurs in one out of every 700 births.

Ulrich hopes hospitals and organizations will rent the treadmills that cost about 1,200 dollars to parents of kids with Down syndrome.

30 infants participated in the study, published in the October issue of journal of the American Physical Therapy Association. Training was done at home by parents who sat on a bench straddling the treadmill holding the baby as child took steps on treadmill for few minutes every day.

Infants, typically, begin walking at 12 months, but kids with Down syndrome often do not learn to walk until 24 to 28 months.