Achilles, Orgin Story

Since Cal learned to walk Cal has had problems with walking. Like everything in life and autism there are a lot of issues that add up to the full picture.  Here are what I think are the main contributing factors.

Calvin is hypo-sensitive to physical stimuli.  It take a lot for him to register touch.  He has a crazy high pain tolerance and does not particularly mind falling down all the time.  He actually kind of gets a weird kick out of the rush. AKA sensory seeking.  This is an atypical characteristic of ASD and most people think of sensory avoidance if they think of anything about autism.  

 Sensory Seeking at about a year and a half

This is part and parcel of a proprioceptive and vestibular dysfunction. Where the body is in space in relation to objects, maintaining balance and motor planning are problematic.  If you are in a room with Calvin you will know it immediately. The kid is very, very clumsy and wanders around like a caged animal and bumps into stuff.  

Age 4. Moving always moving.

Sensory Seeking

Frequent Injuries. All the the time.

For dog and horse people I like to think of it as a high strung stressed out border collie or thoroughbred.  He needs to move to feel normal.  But he is not good at moving.

Size and strength.  Cal was born almost 10 lbs and has stayed right there on the growth chart ever since.  He is easily heads and shoulders above his peers. He is big and he is strong. It is alarming to watch someone so big throw themselves around in the way that he does.   

Idiopathic toe walking. Persistent and severe. It is safe to say that the toe walking is associated with the ASD traits.  But it is unclear what he is getting out of it or what it is addressing internally.  It might be a way to try to slow himself down?  It might feel better to have all his weight on the balls of his feet. Maybe heighten localized pressure helps ground him?  When he first learned to walk he only did it when he was tired or stressed. But somewhere around age 4 he began to  exclusively toe walk.  As a result his achilles tendons did not grow in the correct way.  His tendons were too short and he very little flexibility in his ankles and hips.  He walked with locked ankle and knees up on his tip toes. Moving from the hip.

 Like so.

This just because its a great thing to end on 

I will write about treatment options and what course of action we went with next time.