Trying to Reduce Toe-walking among children with Autism

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Hello,

I am a student of physical therapy in upstate New York. I am currently researching a way to create a simple foot orthotic for patients with autism that would stimulate the patients heel, allowing them to adopt a more typical walking pattern. I was just hoping to get some feedback, attached is a survey and if you would like to complete it or tell me any more about your experiences with toe walking that would be wonderful!

www . surveymonkey. com /s/86Y3VXK

Thanks again any feedback is truly appreciated! And if you live around the Ithaca or Boston area and would be interested in participating in a study please contact me at insertheals@yahoo

My sister used to toe walk quite a bit. We were told it was likely due to shortened ligaments caused by low oxygen at birth. (Umbilical cord wrapped around her neck for a brief period, iirc.) She was instructed to stretch her calves sitting on a yoga ball to correct it. She did this for a while and had success, then stopped. As an adult, she still toe walks, and sometimes more so than others. When I really notice it I remind her to stretch.

Myself, I'd prefer to just do the stretches I think.. but obviously people like her could benefit from an orthotic that corrected it if possible, as she's currently not focused enough to remember to stretch often. Or just can't be bothered. So, yes, I can see value in a product like this coming to market if it truly works. Best of luck with it!

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Out of curiosity, is there a pressing reason why toe-walking should be so strongly discouraged? Does it cause distress or discomfort to the child? Is it a significant hindrance to daily functioning? Is the child being bullied for this behavior? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to be snarky or anything. I just did not know that toe-walking was considered something that needed to be corrected.

If it's due to shortened calf ligaments, then there are physical reasons to correct it as it can cause unnecessary muscle/ligament pain when going for a long walk or participating in sports etc. It may also affect spinal alignment & posture, which can cause pain or other undesirable effects.

Besides the physical, especially for children, correcting it will help them fit in with their peers vs. being singled out as different and potentially bullied or excluded for it. No reason not to try to blend in as best as possible with the NT world and avoid as many potential hassles as possible vs. take on the "I'm different, so what?" attitude with absolutely everything to the point that it's detrimental to one's ability to interact socially, make friends, not be the target of bullies etc. Sometimes conforming to fit in has great benefits.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

My son is on the spectrum,, he toe walked as a child..... I checked him once for shortened calf muscles but he was normal... he still does it every now and then,,,I more or less let it ride as he had so many other more pertinent issues, he out grew it over time.


As far as I remember I never did but I have a bit of a turnout of one foot and the typical asperger clumsiness.

I found a great cure for toe-walking. My grandma taught it to me when I was little.

Every time she caught me toe-walking, she called me over and looked at me sadly and told me that walking on their toes was something ret*d children did, and if I didn't want people to think I was ret*d and ship me off to live in an institution I'd better quit it right now.

By the time I was ready for school, I had learned to be careful about how I walked. Keeping my eyes on my feet was good training.

Every time I caught my son toe-walking, I called him over and told him walking on the toes is something ret*d children do, then I sent him to sit in the corner for making fun of ret*d children. It took about two months for him to quit walking on his toes.

Ditto hand-flapping, spinning, sucking his sleeves. For a while he started picking up random things and fooling with them. He broke a few of his sister's headbands. I picked up one of his robots, fooled with it, then snapped it in half and screamed, "I didn't mean to!"

No more problems.

No bills for the insurance.

No missed school to get fitted for orthotics.

We now have an unobtrusive batch of stims.

It doesn't take him long to forget the hurt feelings and start smiling again.

^ ^ ^

That sounds horrifying.

I think Buyer Beware is being sarcastic about her own actions anyway, not sure about grandma's as I can beleave it, I can't beleave I may have picked up on sarcasim! Please confirm!

My feet turn out and I recently cought myself toe walking not that I paid much attention over the years, never completely setting my heel down until my feet got really tired, at that point I tend to drag my feet and it hurts. In the day my OT was more concerned with teaching me how to run over correcting my walking. Intresting about the cord being wrapped around the neck as I had this happened so I hear.

I believe it was true, it didn't read at all like sarcasm to me, and I do usually pick up sarcasm.

I toe walked as a child and i still do once in awhile. I see nothing wrong with it, there's been no odd or bad effects from my toe walking for decades and honestly i doubt a shoe would any other autistics.

Making a shoe why??? Do you feel toe walking is not acceptable or something?

Our feet have many sensitive nerves and stuff in them.
Toe walking is quieter, creates less of a sensory issue as you are only walking on your toes and not the rest of the foot.

Honestly this shoe sounds like a crock to make money off parents with Autistic children who don't their toe walking or are embarrassed by it.
Let them toe walk if they want to, instead of acting like it's a bad behavior that needs to be corrected.

Likely as they get older they might not toe walk so much. Even if they do, as long as they are happy who cares?

I honestly doubt a shoe would help the issue at all. If one doesn't want to walk on the heel or sole of foot, why would you create a shoe to stimulate the heel? The last thing i would wear is some shoe stimulating my heels worse. agh.

I toe walk as well. Even down stairs. But only at home. When I'm not wearing shoes/loafers/boots.

I do it cause I like to feel the floor with just my toes. And that's good enough reason for me!

I frequently toe walk, although I walk more typically when wearing shoes.

I don't see what the point of discouraging children from toe walking is, but then I really don't understand why so many of these things are viewed as so terrible that they must be corrected.

"Cause toe walking is not the same" Which to me translates as "DIFFERENT, WILL DESTROY UNIVERSE" from anyone who feels the need to correct it.

I was once asked by my brother why I toe walk, he thought I did it to feel taller. I didn't answer him. He should know by now, I figured.

Seems to me, it's a bad thing that everyone who sees it always needs to ask about it.