Balls of the feet and Idioms

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I think walking on the ball of your foot and walking "on your toes" mean the same thing. When NTs say this they mean it as in, you are tiptoeing, up off your heels. I doubt anyone can really walk ON their toes unless they're skilled in ballet and wearing the shoes

And I've definitely seen this mentioned as an Aspie trait, though I forget in which book. Possibly the OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome.

Not just toe walking but heel walking is an autistic trait. In my case heel walking was because I'm
flat footed (bad arches).
As for idiom and figures of speech, I still have a problem with that. Sometimes my posts are out of
context with the rest of the thread that I'm posting on because I did not get the 'gist' of what is being discussed.

To shift weight to your toes, you would need like a 5+ degree incline. The ball requires just short of level.

Who knows, if I walk slow, I sometimes DO favor the ball a little. It is SUBTLE though. Maybe 1-2degrees.

BTW I CAN walk on my toes. I just don't. I never did ballet, but I HAVE done toe and heel raises. And my calfs, and the other muscles whatever their names are, are pretty strong. They are one group where I couldn't find a big enough weight machine to exercise them right.

Steve

hartzofspace, that is great. I guess we women can have 'em, huh?

My mom (rip) used to ask why I walked on my toes around the house. I never knew. I'm an aspie! I'm autistic! I have a reason.

But now age and rheumatoid have made toe walking frequently painful. Shucks.

JohnnyBGoode's photo is correct, and walking "on your toes" is the same thing as walking on the balls of your feet. Nobody actually walks on their *toes* except for ballerinas, and what ballerinas do is not what the expression "walking on your toes" refers to. Aspies often walk with their heels off the ground.

I don't do that though; I have really high arches and slender feet so it hurts to walk that way. Plus, I'm tall to start with and I hit my head on things and tower over people if I walk on my toes.

Oh I think you're right! So when I did the literature search, they refer to the "toe" in terms of gait disturbances, when what they mean is walking with the ball of the foot first. They say a normal gait is heel-toe, and that some people on the spectrum walk toe-heel, but they mean ball of the foot first, then heel.

And they say we have problems with communication and take things too literally.