Tip-Toeing

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I've heard this is common with ASDs, especially in early childhood, although it can be present with NTs. Is there a difference, such as how many years this habit lasts or when it starts? Is this considered a "stim" or something, or is it just an individual characteristic?

Once again, thank you!

Last edited by LolaGranola on 27 Aug 2008, 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dunno much teorys but i do know i and almost all aspie does it mosly on stairs (this must be the 50th or something about this issue xD)

Hmm I never new it was common on stairs, I mostly do it on stairs. I wonder if it's because when climbing up a hill using just your toes to find a good footing is safer then your whole foot as if you slip its easier to find a spot for toes then your whole foot.

I never tip-toed, and my son never has either.

unless i'm carying a heavy load i never fully stabilze on each step going down stairs, it's more like a controlled fall but keeping my feed under me.

as far as not on stairs.... i bias my weight forward on my feet when walking bare foot most of the time, not enough to lift my heel, just enough so that i'm supported by the ball of my foot rather than my whole foot, but i don't do it with shoes on don't know if it's the AS or just a normal tendency that would be there either way.


Jeff

I re-worded my question. Sorry, I think I was a bit unclear.

I do this while going up stairs and when walking barefoot on hardwood floors. That's the only times when I toe walk.

I still walk on my toes quite a bit, especially around my house, and I never gave it a second thought until I learned about Asperger's. I do not make any noise when I walk and I get a smoother, less jolting feel on each step. I always found it odd that other people would stomp around noisily (In retrospect, I probably I tend to fixate on the sound of people's footsteps).

When I am on stairs, the second floor of a building or certain other surfaces, I automatically walk on my toes.

I did as a kid but don't now.

I'm 26 years old and I still walk on my toes. I'm not sure if it's considered a stim though.

Must admit, I've never encountered toe-walking in adults or children.

How does it affect the gait ?

It must slow it down a lot.
It must also be absolutely knackering over any distance.

Doesn't it attract a lot of comment ?

It doesn't really slow me down... I take faster steps when I toe walk.

It's hard to toe walk in shoes, so when I'm wearing shoes I only toe walk up stairs. On a flat surface I tend to step with my foot flat on the ground (not the normal heel-toe way). When I don't have shoes on I toe walk all the time, but nowadays that's usually just at home are when visiting family/friends who are used to it.

I have often been told I have a strange gait, but I don't know exactly how it's strange. People often look at me when I walk, even when I'm not toe walking.

I have a physical disability that effects my feet and sometimes makes it hard for me to stand or walk for long. I'm not sure exactly how the toe walking plays into that. I don't think the toe walking exhausts my feet nearly as much as walking in shoes does, but then again we're talking about different distances and the toe walking comes more natural to me, which is maybe why it's harder for me not to toe walk.

Anything but heel-toe walking is gunna be difficult and unusual.
It would take a lot of compensating to prevent the heel from touching ground first.

I saw it on the 'Aspie Quiz' and wondered about it. Yet another little aspie-trait that I share and had no idea was associated with anything but my own personal oddness.

I have done it since I was a small child. People have often commented on it. When I was in Junior High and High School it was a favorite focus of teasing -- the gang of kids who best liked to give me a hard time would mock this gait in an exaggerated way whenever they passed me in the halls. Eight kids all doing it to an extreme while walking together in a pack look pretty funny, though being laughed at didn't please me. I tried to reduce it, or at least smooth it out so I don't bounce along, and managed that to some degree, but I'm still walking on the balls of my feet.

Some people like it. My HS girlfriend said it's what attracted her, in fact, this 'spring in my step' made me seem vibrant and happy to her, she was dissapointed to eventually uncover the essential melancholy of my character. Another girl wrote a poem about me 'tip-toeing' around her house. My grandfather also enjoyed it.

It doesn't slow me down. I walk about as fast, or faster, as other people of my height. It is not tiring, either, though perhaps it would be if I hadn't been doing it more or less all my life. It's given me musculature in my calves that's not really proportionate to the rest of me. It wears out the soles of shoes in an uneven way.

I did this when I was little, I used to walk around alot with my eyes closed too. My mom said they were always saying "open your eyes, open your eyes!"...I think it may have been a sunlight issue, I guess I didn't do it inside.