toe walking in children with autism

[shruti]

how can toe walkers be treated......kids m talkn bout

[estherderu]

Dear Shruti,

I understand your frustation at not getting a straight answer.

Children and adults suffering from severe autisme are a very difficult group to treat. In these cases, as with other mentally challenged, we cannot expect to be able to change a lot. We often see very strange gait patterns in the mentally challenged patients.

I have not experience in changing gait in this group and I have not read any articles on this subject, so I am sorry I cannot be of help in this respect. My question is why do you want to change the gait? Do you have a specific treatment goal in mind?


Esther

[shruti]

thanx for d reply......

y am aftr changing their gait is......more they walk on toes more r they prone2frequent falls......so is with tht kid also...he hs got so many stitches on his head,near lips......so his gait z becoming dangerous for him now........

[estherderu]

dear Shruti,

I can give you a few suggestions:
you can try to:

1. put weights (half kilo for example) around his ankles, it is possible this will make him more aware of his feet and where he is putting them

2. try making cardboard or plastic clownsfeet, big feet that fit over his shoes, then show him how he can walk as charley chaplin... making them for yourself as well and doing this with music on will be great fun

3. you can also make big broader shoes, forcing him to abduct

4. Try placing feet on the ground he has to step on, if he finds this boring, make something he likes to stand on.
(I often draw them on paper, kids love the sound of walking on paper)


I hope one of these suggestions does some good.

Esther

[shruti]

thanx so much for the suggestions........iam applying weights and it z helping a bit.....will try othrs too
regards
shruti

[estherderu]

dear Shruti,

Glad to help.

Please try and type complete words, a lot of the people reading this forum do not have english as their first language.... and yours is hard to read every now and again.
At least it is for me being an old bird .

Look forward to hearing how things go.

Esther

[shruti]

what all words trouble u in my replies........i think i use complete words no abb.but anyws,i'll take care of it in future

[julhay]

Hi Esther,

I'm relatively new to kinesio taping, I did the training in October so I tend to stick to the protocol when doing inhibition/facilitation taping. The taping I have done is with a very small number of children, about half a dozen although all showed a decrease in toe walking behaviour in some form. With some of the boys it was only immediately after the tape was applied and as the elasticity wore off, so did the effect of the tape.
One particular success was a boy (8yrs) with very severe toe walking who had been recommended for achilles tendon release surgery in 6 months due to limited ankle ROM and pain. For him I alternated between lower leg and upper leg applications (inhibit gastroc/soleous or hamstring, facilitate tib ant or quads). Through a combination of taping, sensory diet and the brushing programme we restored his ankle ROM to 90 degrees and he is no longer having tendon release surgery. He had a two week break from taping over the christmas period and mum noticed that his gait stability deteriorated over this time.
As I said, I've only done this with a handful of kids, it's more out of personal interest than anything else. If you could send me the details of the other taping methods that would be great, thanks. My email is [email protected]

Julia