People with ASD have a reduced perception of their body movement or shift relative to their own postural orientation and equilibrium. At the clinic we often hear of issues such as fatigue, awkwardness, clumsiness and instability of their foot, ankle and hip joints.
What Is Posturing in Autism? Posturing is the act of holding one's fingers or hands out at an angle. It is merely one example of stimming or self-stimulatory behavior. It's also defined as arching the back while sitting.
One theory is that it may be related to differences in brain development. Research has shown that the same genes involved in brain development are also involved in the development of facial features. Therefore, it's possible that differences in brain development could lead to differences in facial features.
posturing – for example, holding hands or fingers out at an angle or arching the back while sitting. visual stimulation – for example, looking at something sideways, watching an object spin or fluttering fingers near the eyes. repetitive behaviour – for example, opening and closing doors or flicking switches.
Girls with autism tend to have smaller heads and bodies than their typically developing peers, whereas boys with the disorder tend to have average-sized heads and slightly larger bodies, report two studies published in July.
While the cause of autism is unknown, children with autism and ASD have been noted in several studies to have a high prevalence of macrocephaly, appear to be taller on average than the general population, and may have gastrointestinal co-morbidities for which gluten- and/or casein-free diets are prescribed.
Low muscle tone is commonly seen in children with autism. However, since ASD is a spectrum, their physical presentation can vary drastically from having increased tone which is causing the tip-toe walking, to decreased tone and walking either with flattened feet or compensating by going up onto their tiptoes to walk.
Postural control refers to the ability to keep the trunk and head steady and upright when moving the limbs, as well as to the small adjustments that need to be made in the alignment of the body to maintain balance. Children on the autistic spectrum have difficulties with both these aspects of postural control.
They often stay in this asymmetrical posture, shifting weight onto one leg—habitually, the preferred leg. Short-term consequences of this asymmetric posture include behavioral issues; fatigue; awkwardness; clumsiness of one or both feet; and instability of the ankle, knee, hip or spine.
hand and finger mannerisms, like finger-flicking and hand-flapping. rocking the body back and forth while sitting or standing. posturing – holding hands or fingers out at an angle or arching the back while sitting.
Research has shown that individuals with autism may have differences in their prenatal brain development, including abnormalities in structures involved in facial recognition and processing. These differences could potentially lead to atypical facial features.
Individuals with autism often have a number of unusual physical characteristics, called dysmorphologies, such as wide-set eyes or broad foreheads. Dysmorphic features may mark a subgroup of individuals who have autism with a distinct underlying genetic cause.
Facial expressions smooth social interactions: A smile may show interest, a frown empathy. People with autism have difficulty making appropriate facial expressions at the right times, according to an analysis of 39 studies1. Instead, they may remain expressionless or produce looks that are difficult to interpret.
Decorticate posturing is a reflex pose that's a symptom of damage to or disruptions in brain activity. It causes your legs to become rigid and straight, while your arms flex upward and hold tensely to your chest. It's usually a sign of brain damage or disrupted brain activity.
Abnormal posturing is an involuntary flexion or extension of the arms and legs, indicating severe brain injury. It occurs when one set of muscles becomes incapacitated while the opposing set is not, and an external stimulus such as pain causes the working set of muscles to contract.
Sensory Issues
Many people with autism experience sensory processing disorder. This is more commonly known as sensory overload. Noise, crowds, bright lights, strong tastes, smells, and being touched can feel unbearable to someone with HFA. This makes going to restaurants, movies, and shopping malls difficult.
Postural sway in those with ADHD may be attributed to deficits in their proprioceptive system - the sensory system responsible for perceiving body position and movement. These deficits can lead to difficulty maintaining balance and stable posture during both static and dynamic activities.
Autistic people can often have trouble sleeping. There are a range of reasons for this including difficulties with relaxing or winding down and irregular melatonin levels.
Sitting still for extended periods can be difficult for anyone, but particularly challenging for children on the autism spectrum due to sensory issues. And this can deeply impact their learning and social life.
There are different types of slow processing.
In autism, we often come across people whose processing of incoming information is slow. This blog post won't cover an exhaustive list of examples. But below we discuss a few examples of slow processing that we have come across.
High-functioning autism means that a person is able to read, write, speak, and handle daily tasks, such as eating and getting dressed independently. Despite having symptoms of autism, their behavior doesn't interfere too much with their work, school, or, relationships.
Muscles are also affected, with a tendency to weakness (sometime mistakenly called low muscle tone). Hypermobile joints are less stable than usual; this means that the child needs stronger muscles to support the body. Fortunately strength training will improve both joint stability and muscle strength.
Although the autistic will generally lean toward inflexibility, he may also be able to influence how entrenched his patterns become. For the ASD individual who wishes to work on flexibility, the following suggestions may help.
Some of the frequent facial features of autism are a broader upper face, shorter middle face, wider eyes, bigger mouth, and the philtrum [19]. The use of facial features as a physical marker to detect autism is one of the most exciting topics in autism research.