In recent years Ferrari et al. proposed a new classification of gait in diplegic children with spastic diplegia that describes four different patterns of gait by analyzing the strategies that each children adopts to need his/her needs to walk. The investigators believe that this classification provides the clinician with clinically meaningful information in terms of coping strategies adopted to maximize the ability to walk.

The aim of this study is to determine the criterion validity of the new classification of the pattern of gait in children with spastic diplegia by correlating pattern of diplegic gait with the score of the Functional performance measure.

Inclusion Criteria:

• diplegia and CP;

Exclusion Criteria:

• severe mental retardation attested by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders IV
• pharmaco-resistant epilepsy
• behavioural disorders

We retrospectively studied children with diplegia and CP who are followed by the Unit for Severe Disability in the Developmental Age at the Hospital of Reggio Emilia (Italy);