| Antalgic | Limited range of motion; limping; slow and short steps; unable to bear full weight | Pain worsening with movement and weight bearing | Degenerative joint disease; trauma |
| Cautious | Arms and legs abducted; careful; en bloc turns; like walking on ice; slow; wide-based | Associated with anxiety, fear of falling, or open spaces | Deconditioning; post-fall syndrome; visual impairment |
| Cerebellar ataxia | Staggering; wide-based | Dysarthria; dysdiadochokinesia; dysmetria; impaired check; intention tremor; nystagmus; postural instability; rebound; Romberg sign present; titubation | Cerebellar degeneration; drug or alcohol intoxication; multiple sclerosis; stroke; thiamine deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency |
| Choreic | Dance-like; irregular; slow; spontaneous knee flexion and leg rising; wide-based | Choreoathetotic movements of upper extremities | Huntington disease; levodopa-induced dyskinesia |
| Dystonic | Abnormal posture of foot or leg; distorted gait; foot dragging; hyperflexion of hips | Worse with the action of walking; may improve when walking backward | — |
| Frontal gait disorder (gait apraxia) | Magnetic; start and turn hesitation; freezing; marche à petits pas | Dementia; frontal lobe signs; incontinence | Frontal lobe degeneration; multi-infarct state; normal-pressure hydrocephalus |
| Hemiparetic | Extension and circumduction of weak and spastic limb; flexed arm | Extensor plantar response; face, arm, and leg weakness; hyperreflexia | Hemispheric or brainstem lesion |
| Paraparetic | Adduction; extension; scissoring of both legs; stiffness | Bilateral leg weakness; extensor plantar response; hyperreflexia; spasticity | Spinal cord or bilateral cerebral lesions |
| Parkinsonian | Short-stepped; shuffling; hips, knees, and spine flexed; festination; en bloc turns | Bradykinesia; muscular rigidity; postural instability; reduced arm swing; rest tremor | Parkinson disease; atypical or secondary forms of parkinsonism |
| Psychogenic | Astasia-abasia; bizarre and nonphysiologic gait; lurching; rare fall or injury | Absence of objective neurologic signs; give-way weakness | Factitious, somatoform disorders or malingering |
| Sensory ataxia | Unsteady; worse without visual input, particularly at night | Distal sensory loss; impaired position and vibratory sensation; Romberg sign present | Dorsal column dysfunction; neuronopathy; sensory neuropathy |
| Steppage | Resulting from footdrop; excessive flexion of hips and knees when walking; short strides; slapping quality; tripping | Atrophy of distal leg muscles; distal sensory loss and weakness footdrop; loss of ankle jerk | Motor neuropathy |
| Vestibular ataxia | Unsteady; falling to one side; postural instability | Nausea; normal sensation, reflexes, and strength; nystagmus; vertigo | Acute labyrinthitis; Meniere disease |
| Waddling | Lumbar lordosis; swaying; symmetric; toe walk; wide-based | Hip dislocation; proximal muscle weakness of lower extremities; use arms to get up from chair | Muscular dystrophy; myopathy |
