Children with ASD tend to augment their walking stability with a reduced stride length, increased step width and therefore wider base of support, and increased time in the stance phase. Children with ASD have reduced range of motion at the ankle and knee during gait, with increased hip flexion.
The longer leg is flexed at the hip and knee and pronates at the foot and ankle,” she said. The noted “odd gait” of ASD may be the result of leg-length discrepancy and as-yet unexplained sensory issues, she said. “I use the term movement disorder or dystonia to describe this awkward gait,” Zwick said.
Individuals with Asperger's often display an odd or uneven gait when walking or running, trouble with ball skills, difficulty with balance, poor handwriting skills, and difficulty imitating or mirroring others' postures, gestures, or movements.
Ataxia, or abnormal gait, is often accompanied by degeneration of the cerebellum. Moreover, similar to autism, ataxia is often associated with deficits in executive function, emotional processing, and cognition.
Children with autism have a problem with decreased muscle tone or increased muscle weaknesses. As a result, their body posture falls in the forward direction putting their weight over their toes. This is why they tend to walk on their toes rather than their feet.
By contrast, Rinehart says, children with autism tend to have a wide stance, and their stride length and width vary from step to step. These patterns may explain why some people with autism seem to have an unusual walking style — even if it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what's odd about their movements.
" Stimming ," also known as self-stimulating behaviors or stereotypy, are repetitive body movements or repetitive movements of objects. Many individuals on the autism spectrum engage in routine stimming .
Sensory Gait/High Stepping Gait/Feet Slapping Gait - when who does not have SA walks, the sensory nerve would be stimulated when the sole touches the ground, then the relevant information is transmitted to indicate the position of the feet.
Apraxia of gait is a unique disorder of locomotion characterized by inability in lifting the feet from the floor despite alternating stepping action (frozen gait), and disequilibrium. Responsible site of lesions are in the frontal lobe and/or the basal ganglia.
Spastic gait -- a stiff, foot-dragging walk caused by a long muscle contraction on one side.
For example, individuals with autism may have a flatter mid-face and a wider mouth compared to neurotypical individuals. They may also have a broader upper face, shorter philtrum (the groove between the nose and upper lip), and wider set eyes.
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) not only have communication and social difficulties, but also exhibit poor balance and motor control ability, which frequently affect daily activities. Effective balance and motor control rely on the integration of somatosensory, visual, and vestibular inputs.
In all, 8.4% of patients with a diagnosis of ASD also had a diagnosis of toe-walking (n = 484).
The hallmark characteristics of a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are deficits in social communicative skills and the use of repetitive and/or stereotyped behaviors. In addition, children with ASD experience known motor-skill delays.
Neuropathic Gait
(Steppage Gait, Equine Gait) Seen in patients with foot drop (weakness of foot dorsiflexion), the cause of this gait is due to an attempt to lift the leg high enough during walking so that the foot does not drag on the floor. If unilateral, causes include peroneal nerve palsy and L5 radiculopathy.
Ataxic gait is often characterized by difficulty walking in a straight line, lateral veering, poor balance, a widened base of support, inconsistent arm motion, and lack of repeatability. These symptoms often resemble gait seen under the influence of alcohol.
Dyspraxic adults may also walk with a different gait, bump into things frequently and/or have trouble participating in sports. In some cases oral language skills are affected. These issues can combine to cause embarrassment and result in social awkwardness.
Hemiplegic gait (circumduction or spastic gait): gait in which the leg is held stiffly and abducted with each step and swung around to the ground in front, forming a semicircle. From: Clinical Application of Neuromuscular Techniques, Volume 2 (Second Edition), 2011.
This paper first reviews research which shows that autism impacts many systems in the body, including the metabolic, mitochondrial, immunological, gastrointestinal and the neurological. These systems interact in complex and highly interdependent ways.
The neurodiversity movement was launched by Judy Singer, an Australian sociologist who is herself on the autism spectrum. Singer saw neurodiversity as a social justice movement, to promote equality of what she called “neurological minorities” — people whose brains work in atypical ways.
In general, people with autism have movements that are noisier and more random than those of controls, the researchers found. There's less difference between their intentional and unintentional movements. Torres says this suggests that many people with autism have abnormal body awareness.