I recently came across a heated discussion with adults discussing their autistic children wearing heels. There were a lot of valid points on both sides. But I wanted to chime in today and offer some advice and information on this topic. In order to help spread some awareness and knowledge.
The discussion was how they had seen a child visiting a famous theme park wearing heels. They were around 8/9 years old. And the comment was posted on a social media site discussing how ‘awful’ it was to allow a child of that age to where such inappropriate footwear.
This is one of the main reasons I’ve come to find social media harmful. Because, everybody was offering their opinions and input. But, nobody knew that child. Nobody knew this child, or the family. They didn’t know why this child was wearing heels. And yet, everyone was offering their own opinions and parenting advice.
Research..
Now, if you’ve been reading up about autism or doing a lot of research, you may have read about some autistic individuals walk on their toes. And this can be a LOT of the time. Toe walking can be something that the individual has learnt to do. But, it can also be an ongoing challenging that they have, such as with their motor co-ordination, sensory processing issues and having a tight achilles tendon.
Many professionals have shared that walking on toes can help individuals who may have over-stimulation in their feet from walking on their full foot.
There has also been a lot of research that shows one of the most common parts of autism is having a dysfunctional vestibular system. And this can be one of the many reasons why autistic individuals walk on their toes.
There have been types of research done to help these individuals reduce walking on their toes. Such as;
- Physical exercise to try and stretch the tendon
- Therapeutic vestibular stimulation such as hammock swings
- Prism lenses
- Casting – this means wearing a cast to try and stretch out the tendon
- Surgery
So, as you can see, toe walking can cause a lot of medical issues. And it can be very difficult to stop our children walking on their toes. There are a lot of bad effects that can happen from walking on your toes. And there’s not a huge amount of ways to try and reduce this.
Another Reason..
Now, on the flip side, there are other issues that can come into play here, like medical issues. My mother-in-law has wore heels for most of her life. And this is all day, every day. Because of her height, she has never felt comfortable wearing flats. So, she also wears heels.
However, her body has now adjusted to her wearing heels and she physically can not wear flat shoes anymore. It’s actually painful for her when she tries to wear flats. And this can be from her wearing heels constantly has altered her whole skeletal system. Or the achilles tendon being shortened.
So, while it is uncomfortable to wear heels walking 1000s of steps every day. It is more comfortable for her to wear heels than wear flats. And granted, she is not a child. But don’t forget, autism can affect people of any age. And you could be seeing a 50 year old walking around a theme park in high heels and start commenting on their ‘unsuitable footwear’ too.
All I ask, is the next time you think about commenting on someone else. Please remember that there can be more things going on in their life. We don’t know what someone else is going through. And there could be a valid reason for this.
Do you have any experience with toe walking? Or any advice that you can share with our audience? Let us know in the comments section below!
Nikki
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