kx250rider wrote:
Although I'm not a doctor, and I respect the research by those higher educated, I don't buy into the AS/Autism = lower muscle tone theory. I think it's cause & effect; cause being more sedentary habits of many of us with autism. Speaking for myself at least, I spent my toddler years sitting in one spot as far away from anybody else as possible as long as I was allowed to, and playing with one or two things the whole time; never up & running around, or doing anything physical unless coaxed. I was thrilled just being alone in my room all day. I think this was very different from NT toddlers' habits. I too had low muscle tone and clumsiness (gross motor clumsiness; not fine motor). Once I came into special interests which led me to be more active, the muscle tone issue disappeared completely (if my avatar is any evidence, LOL), as did much of the gross motor clumsiness.
So the bottom line is that I think it's possible that many on the Spectrum with low muscle tone, are that way as a result of habits in life, and that's not intended as judgmental.
Charles
If you inject someone with a single, big dose of haldol their muscle tone will skyrocket in minutes. If a person drinks a lot of alcohol, or takes barbituates or benzodiazepines their muscle tone will quickly become low. These hypothetical people aren't improving or degrading the quality of their muscle mass in minutes or hours -- it's a neurological effect. Alcohol and similar drugs lower muscle tone by affecting signalling in the spinal cord, and drugs like haldol by effects on the basal ganglia of the brain.
Other things, such as Parkinson's disease or a brain injury can also cause high or low (neurological) muscle tone (respectively). So, you can have children with low muscle tone independently of being sedentary or not. Being fit would likely help them, though.
08 Aug 2012, 6:31 pm
