What is the aspie gait?

[HansieMom]

Can you tell a person has AS just by watching them walk? I ran across the term 'aspie gait', googled it and didn't get an answer. Some mentioned slouching, walking fast, or kids bouncing when they walk and getting teased for it by the time they were teenagers.

[sidneycat]

I am aspie with many many gifts. but i never tell anyone except my wife , because i feel i would treated badly .
when I read about the aspie gait , then I began trying to walk 'normally' so people would not recognize me being an aspie by my gait. In walmart , My wife(an angel) asked me why i am walking like i am in the army -- i said i thought i was walking more normally so would blend in better with regular humans . i was not trying to walk like i was in the army ..... she laughed and said no my dear, you stand out more when you try to change you gait . Just walk like you normally do .
Well , we both found humour in the moment .
I see my aspergers as a gift .

[MotherJack]

have nothing to add, but just wanted to make this thread come up in Threads I Am On when I am less tired and able to read, tomorrow...

[nadia77]

it's really intresting to read all the above posts my son as a baby/toddler never cruised or stood he crawled and then suddenly walked he never held on to things for support or anything he skipped a stage but even now he tip toes when he is bare foot or with socks hmmmm and i did raise concerns of his development from when he was 14mths but fobbed of by gp and only diagnosed with asd when 3 yrs4mths

[saladsandwich]

oh just thought of something else ds does when hes walking and running he sort of leans foward alot, like he wants to go faster than what his legs can go does this when you hold his hand too, his legs are normal, body leant foward x

[wigglybeezer]

I cantered a lot as a child but I was actually riding an imaginary horse at the time!

[saladsandwich]

my ds isnt diagnosed with anything but he does alot of what as been described on here... he does a strange skip, like hes playing horses and does this more when we are walking on the street. tiptoes when running, and he does shuffle and walk with tiny steps alot. i'll have to watch his arms but i know as a child i did the helicopter thing lol xx

[drivemecrazy63]

trait even

[drivemecrazy63]

lol @ equine theme, i guess just best way i can describe how ds runs with same foot first each time it must be a common traint i suppose and the looking at the floor a lot and helicopter arms or the op regimental arms at side usually they seem to be one or other.

[yodelayheehoo]

Not sure penneyann , if you find out...do let me know !

[penneyann]

Just realised , yodelay.., there appears to be a recurring equine theme running through these threads. Whats that all about?

[penneyann]

My ds ,11, mild AS, does very same as yours , Wigglybeezer. He walks along looking at ground and then breaks into a canter. Overall he has a rather stiff gait !

[yodelayheehoo]

My DD doesn't run, she gallops like a horse.

[HansieMom]

My grandson has a friend and they were on the same T-Ball team. His run is really unusual. He sort of plows forward with his arms going everywhere. He looks ready to fall. But I see no signs of AS. I only see him when we visit, at parties or playing outside. I know he is really into one subject of interest, I think it may be space. Last party, he sat by himself, don't know what that was about.

[MissKittyEliza]

The practitioner marks her file FLK? Funny Looking Kid? Nice professional

[coff33pot]

Has has me watching my DS with interest too on the way to school! He doesnt move his arms at all they stay at his sides with no swing. His walk is flat footed or whole foot down. Sort of no flex from the waist down I suppose.

[wigglybeezer]

You have had me staring at DS2 (mild AS), he actually has a reasonably normal gait but does look at the ground in front of him all the time when walking, and breaks into a canter frequently. I wish I had more footage of him walking and running as a toddler as I can't remember what he did. DS1 did the crawling dragging one leg underneath ( which is supposed to be an indicator) and is pigeon toed on one side, holding his arm up on the same side (ala Larry Grayson lol). He is supposed to be NT but I don't think he is 100%! I sometimes wonder if he may have a touch of cerebral palsy (very dodgy birth) but it may just be a dyspraxia/mild ASD thing (not bad enough for an investigation i don't think).

[drivemecrazy63]

yes the head moving slower than the feet thats right

[Miggsie]

I know a pactitioner who has treated quite a few suspected and already diagnosed ASD children and she says she can spot the signs very early. She often notes her file "FLK" which is her abbreviation for "funny looking kid" in which she can see there is something "not quite right" and she does further investigation before referring them to paedeatricians etc. She says she can now spot from very very young, it's something to do with the way the head is held and then how the hands move (especially if fine motor skills are poor) and then she looks at the movement of the lower body and the way the feet are placed on the ground.

Sometimes it is hypotonia or dyphraxia but often it is AS. She saw my friends AS boy at a distance and she said "look how the head is moving the opposite way from the feet when he runs, he has a physical delay, his head is moving slower than his feet". She says the entire body movement is different, sometime subtle, sometimes really obvious.

[drivemecrazy63]

ds runs differently he sort of bends forward and trots in a horsey fashion while arms swing like helecopter, and he walks down stairs right foot right foot not left righ left right IYKWIM and does lots of skipping right foot right foot rather than run a lot of the time , he also noticed this ages ago but ignore most of it as used to seeing it twirls his head around while running too in circular motion every now and then.

[HansieMom]

Yes, MissKitty, that's the kind of description I'm interested in. Some people describe an AS or ASD gait as odd, awkward or different but don't elaborate. One mother described her daughter's walk as Little Miss Tattletale, as she walked as if she was marching up to the teacher to tattle on someone. She kept her arms at her sides.
Other people say they shuffle and trip a lot. Some lean forward, or look down, or keep head lowered but look up from that position. Some tiptoe. Others bounce or walk fast. One person's dad screamed at him once to "walk normally!"

[MissKittyEliza]

Yes, very obvious gait right fro the getgo for ds (10, ASD, OCD, Tourettes).

He walk with small steps. He kind of leans awkwardly, to one side. His arms a stiff at his side with fists usually clenched with anxiety.

This the kind of thing?

[HansieMom]

www.pnas.org/content/95/23/13982.full

Dr. Tietlebaum and others authored this. They studied videos of autistic children as babies. There are three stages in walking, they describe them. All the autistic children showed asymetry in their body, there were only 17 autistic children they studied. One child showed a goose step method of walking. He shifted his weight at a later stage than NT kids. They also noted many of the kids had moebius mouths--lower lip level and upper one arched. I learned a lot and think anyone with a child you think is autistic would enjoy reading it too. Often mothers know something is wrong but the doc will fob them off. Here is one passage:

(ii) Delayed development: At the age of 2 or even later, the gait may be more infantile than normal. Thus, one autistic child at the age of 2 exhibited active movement of each thigh only, with the lower leg and foot being carried passively. Also, the foot was planted on the floor as a whole, and there was no release of the hind heel and thus no smooth transfer of weight.

[HansieMom]

That site was very interesting, Babs2011. It is from 1995 so I'm going to try to find further work from some of the researchers. One person said he can tell from a child's movements at age 1 if they will have autism. Here is an excerpt from the paper:

Dr. Teitelbaum drew attention to the way in which the arms of beginning walkers are held up, gradually lowering as they and their gait mature. The arms of many people with autism are also held up while walking, suggesting motor development which has become arrested at an early stage. It is common to see one arm held significantly higher than the other, further suggesting uneven lateral development, with the sides of the body at different developmental levels.

[babs2011]

this link may be some interest to you
www.autcom.org/articles/MovementRelationship.html

[babs2011]

Its been an eye opening for me reading all . My son as a lot tiptoe walking , And in my words walks and runs like a toddler and stamps his feet heavy footed ..He's 8 .will have to read more on the net as ive never heard of the term 'aspie gait',
Thankyou for the post .