Walking

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My mother recently told me that I have an unusual way of walking. She says I walk looking at the ground always (so much that I don't notice things around me and sometimes walk out in front of cars in parking lots) and that I almost always flap my hands and sometimes swing my arms and rock a little when I am walking. Is this common for people on the spectrum? I never really thought about it until now.

Basically, is it common for people with ASD to walk in an unusual way? Or is it something else.

I hear that I strut a bit.

I flap my arms all the time when I'm walking too. People told me my walking looked 'clumsy' and I always watch the ground too as I walk without stepping on the lines. Many times almost walked under the trams.

It's an autism thing. I also have the problem of taking in everything while outdoors and walking out into traffic in the process. Lots of hand and arm animation too.

Walking is good for us though, very grounding.

I've often been told by friends that they can spot me from a distance by the way I walk. I bob up and down and from side to side a lot, and put most of the weight on my toes (I have always been a tip-toe walker when stimming.) My arms often don't swing in sync with my legs, either, as I seem to have learned to walk without swinging them at all - I can walk equally fast holding bags of shopping as without (and I always walk very briskly.) I thank my lucky stars that I have never been injured in a road accident when walking, as I get into a bit of a trance once moving, so my situational awareness can be terrible. When people have commented on it, I have often joked with them that I have "clockwork legs" like a wind-up toy.

When I was younger, I was in a marching band for a little while, and I used to drive the drill instructor mad. He would get one of the other boys to demonstrate, and when I did it, I was certain that I was doing exactly the same as them. But no, it was never what he was looking for (this was long before most people had a gadget in their pocket that could take videos - thankfully!) I could march in time, and followed the commands OK, so it must have been my posture and/or gait that were the problem.

Interestingly, my Mum tells me that my walk is identical to my Uncle - her younger brother. I saw him very rarely, and only at family gatherings indoors, so I doubt that I could have copied him. The way that my Mum describes him, I've wondered if he might also be an Aspie.

I used to walk quite awkwardly as a child; but my walking has improved over time.

I wish I lived about 3 miles from work. If I did, I would walk to work every day. It would be a shorter commute than my present one. I'd even do it in most inclement weather.

LOL...I remember once when the London transport system was totally shut down because of 8 cms of snow at Heathrow.

It's good to have that extra option for mobility to get you to work. It also makes one feel less isolated.

I used to have an extreme issue with walking in public that stretched the whole expanse of my adolescence and beyond - by my twenties the issue has noticeably lessened, however, but that I know is simply the effect of a great deal of practice managing my social anxiety.
The funny thing about my walking problem was that from the beginning, I never knew I was walking oddly: sadly the issue was first brought to my attention by other students at the time (who had a great time imitating a hunched down, fast-paced walk...) and the obvious ties it had to anxiety made actually knowing about it a whole lot worse.
I actually had teachers make fun of me for this thing. Honestly... though it would be years and years until anyone even thought to wonder whether there was something else at play to make me the way I am, I am disappointed to this day that the best any of them could do was observe, and laugh.

I can recall when my parents told me, growing up, to not look at the ground when walking. At the time, I didn't even realise I was doing it.

I think I'm probably better at it than I was and don't look at the ground so much, but I definitely stim with my hands when walking. Not hand flapping though.

I refer to it as hand and arm animations rather than "flapping".

I have always been told I walk “weird”. I don’t have any description because when I ask how my walking is weird, I just get “it’s just weird”. The things I am conscious of are that I walk with my head at a downward angle, I step forward with my left leg foot angled towards my right leg and swing deep inward diagonal with my right leg foot angled parallel to my left foot. This is partially due to a rotational deformity from w-sitting and hypermobility, and mild scoliosis which has my right hip higher than my left (enough to affect my walk but not too noticeable that you could guess I had scoliosis). I also walk the same pace no matter what I carry and stem when I walk. Other than that, I seriously don’t know how my walking is that weird.

I walk with my head to the ground too, never knew why I did it, I thought I was being weird.