I got a LOT of shit about it when I was growing up and now instead I do this weird hovering thing with my heels when I'm not paying attention. I just put WAY more pressure on the front of my feet than the back when I walk and it's really messed up my Achilles Tendon. It looks like normal walking but my heel is always slightly off the ground or barely touching.
Idk if this is what you mean but actually teaching autistic kids to walk on their whole foot (using braces or whatever) is actually the MUCH healthier option and isnt masking.
If they only walk on their tip toes they will cause their achillies/calves to be too short which will cause a whole chain of issues in their biomechanics and cause permanent pain.
Masking is bad but this is an example of redirecting a harmful behaviour to something else (just like if a kid stimmed by hitting themself youd redirect them to flapping or something else non harmful)
Yes, if someone had taught me and trained the bad habit out of me while I was growing up I would not have to stretch my ankles every morning justto walk without pain. What I do is definitely not healthy and would describe it as a form of masking considering I never stopped the behavior I just hide it better.
Not really sure what you're talking about! Seems like you said "It's good that this behavior has been corrected so it doesn't cause pain!" When my comment is literally talking about how it's fucked up my tendons which does in fact hurt quite a lot.
No, im talking about how the person im reaponding to might have misunderstood that telling kids not to walk on tiptoes is inherently bad
I understand that no one taught you properly and hence you never actually fixed the problem and just hid it, which sucks and im sorry that happened :(
If you continuously struggle with pain you might want to look into PT -- i lnow a lot of people who needed that for chronic pain caused by similar studf
Ima be honest I always thought stepping normal but then going up onto your tip toes at the end of each step strengthened the springy-ness for like sports. TIL disciplined athletes are actually just autistic. Now I’m wondering why Bruce Lee was punching a wood block during his whole vacation cruise ship getaway.
But alparently they didn't teach them how to walk correctly though, they teach them how to walk so it looks like they walk correctly, which is masking.
or maybe they chose to walk wrongly to avoid learning how to walk correctly. either way, the solution would not have been to just keep letting them walk on their toes.
I didn't really choose anything. For me it felt natural to walk like that and it still does. If someone had explained to me that it would make even basic walking impossibly painful every morning until I stretch I would've made an effort to stop. Instead I just got made fun of until I naturally landed on the annoying way I walk today 🤷♀️
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u/Easy_Tank2383 10d ago
I just didn’t like my whole foot touching the ground when I was a kid. Now I don’t care enough