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Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

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Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#101

Post by fsckboy »

yndoendo wrote: post #97

I am hesitant to post this because of JFK JR and ignoring with the politicians in power against ASD. Gait is not constant in the stride. It all depends on the footwear. The constant for me is being silent while walking. Be the ball of your feet or the heels. Having auditory issues / sensitive to sound, I walk to be silent and unheard. Walking and scaring wildlife and other humans was a personally taught process. I ca…

Yours is a fascinating take on the topic, I learned a lot, thank you. I'm left thinking that signs of autism could very well be encoded in the way you walk.

I'm asd myself, but i think i show it in speech patterns, not walking.

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#102

Post by strken »

cardanome wrote: post #31
bluefirebrand wrote: post #17

I suspect that there are signs of autism or other neurodivergences encoded in a lot of our body language, and we're really only starting to qualify what those behaviors are But we also should be careful not to over-diagnose neurodivergence based on outward behavior. Not everyone who fidgets is ADHD

In fact people with ADHD have also their peculiar walks: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/H1YsnuaYY-g > based on outward behavior Yes, neurodivergence can only be diagnosed based on how you work on the inside. It is not possible to diagnose based on outside behavior as people can show symptoms very differently and can mask their symptoms. And no, you obviously can not diagnose people based on how they walk. If anything…

> Yes, neurodivergence can only be diagnosed based on how you work on the inside.

I don't think this is exactly true. We don't involuntarily commit people to psych wards after a long and complicated investigation to understand their mental state. Diagnoses can be made extremely quickly and with little understanding of the interior state of a patient.

> Both autism are ADHD are vastly under-diagnosed especially in women and adults.

I've heard it said that both autism and ADHD are like height, in that it's not clear where the boundary sits. We all agree that some people are tall and some people are short. When someone claims that there are a vast number of undiagnosed tall people, though, to what extent is it because we're not reaching enough people vs because our diagnostic threshold for tallness has lowered?

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#103

Post by ghushn3 »

benreesman wrote: post #93

I'm sure everyone involved means well, but we are really starting to embrace a culture of defining "normal" down to some arbitrary amount that seems to have no floor. I'm all for making sure that effective treatments are made available to anyone they might help, but couldn't a lot of this be addressed society just...being tolerant of diversity in people? Gating everyone through "thrives in American High School" as a…

I tend to agree, as an autistic person. And a lot of autistic people hold the belief that, "My autism is not a problem, your expectations that I behave like you do are the problem."

If I need to move a little differently, or not hold eye contact when I speak, the fact that I get made fun of is the problem. If we just accepted, "hey, some people are like that" more, I think we'd have a lot fewer problems.

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#104

Post by ghushn3 »

throwawaymaths wrote: post #95

Isn't walking on the balls of your feet just "good athleticism"?

Most athletes I'm aware of allow their heels to touch the ground. Unless you are aware of a bunch of athletes that walk around like velociraptors, and if you are, please share!

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#106

Post by ghushn3 »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #80

One thing I’ve wondered is how broad is the autism umbrella? How much do two autistic people have in common other than being different than neurotypicals and thus having social difficulties? It seems to me that a condition defined by a difficulty with social signals could be extremely diverse in its causes and actual underlying conditions.

They might share a lot or might share nothing. Autism is an umbrella diagnosis over a wide range of behaviors and support needs. Diagnostically, it currently has a 1-3 scale across two broad support areas, with one being low support needs and 3 being high support needs. (From the DSM.)

That said, the reasons for autism are not well understood, and there may be many different root causes that lead to the umbrella diagnosis.

Additionally, experiences vary widely -- some autistic folks do not ever feel hungry and must be reminded to eat (or build support systems for it). Others do not ever feel full and must be reminded to not eat (or build support systems for it). Interoception (the perception of your body's internal signals) is impaired for many autistic folks.

Some of us experience misophonia, and get extreme fight or flight responses to audio signals -- personally, I get extremely agitated if I hear someone eating with their mouth open. (To be clear, it's not annoyance. It's fear/anger/hate/danger sense.)

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#107

Post by suzzer99 »

fsckboy wrote: post #99
suzzer99 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High school is truly fun for maybe 15% of the students, is an utter nightmare for 15%, and has its moments but still generally sucks for everyone else.

maybe it's being 15 that sucks for 85%, and has nothing to do with high school at all.

15 is definitely a rough age.

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#108

Post by devmor »

ghushn3 wrote: post #103
benreesman wrote: post #93

I'm sure everyone involved means well, but we are really starting to embrace a culture of defining "normal" down to some arbitrary amount that seems to have no floor. I'm all for making sure that effective treatments are made available to anyone they might help, but couldn't a lot of this be addressed society just...being tolerant of diversity in people? Gating everyone through "thrives in American High School" as a…

I tend to agree, as an autistic person. And a lot of autistic people hold the belief that, "My autism is not a problem, your expectations that I behave like you do are the problem." If I need to move a little differently, or not hold eye contact when I speak, the fact that I get made fun of is the problem. If we just accepted, "hey, some people are like that" more, I think we'd have a lot fewer problems.

Well said.

I am not autistic personally but working in tech and being into field-associated hobbies, I have a much more autism-dense social circle than the average person. This was awkward for me at first because it felt like I was either constantly irritated or being irritating to others by following my standard learned social conventions.

Once I changed my expectations to clarify and verify intent instead of derive and assume intent from others, this immediately stopped. Applying the same changes in social interaction with people who are not on the spectrum has actually felt like it leads to less misunderstandings and hurt feelings as well. I’m left wondering if the parts of human interaction that created these standards that autistic people find so frustrating might not even exist anymore and the rest of us have been upholding conventions that ultimately make life harder for us, just because we were taught to do so.

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#109

Post by degamad »

markburns wrote: post #37
kulahan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment doesn’t really support its own premise well - you just say that we used to stereotype people and point out what some of those stereotypes were, but not why they’re radically incorrect. You sorta just pointed out that they exist. I’m not of one opinion or the other, I just don’t see why it’s self evident that certain groups of people wouldn’t walk a certain way.

I had a realisation recently that we’re pretty comfortable with regional dialect borders being an entrenched and normal thing that reach back in history a thousand years or more and that something as specific as how we move our mouths and tongues is strongly correlated geographically. But we don’t often pay attention to other types of physical and behavioural culture being as geographically entrenched as they sometim…

There are some behaviours which are classically regionally identified, but they tend to be the exception to the rule...

Italians talking with their hands, the Indian head-wobble, the East-Asian squat, etc.

Re: Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk

#110

Post by novaleaf »

yndoendo wrote: post #97

I am hesitant to post this because of JFK JR and ignoring with the politicians in power against ASD. Gait is not constant in the stride. It all depends on the footwear. The constant for me is being silent while walking. Be the ball of your feet or the heels. Having auditory issues / sensitive to sound, I walk to be silent and unheard. Walking and scaring wildlife and other humans was a personally taught process. I ca…

lots of households don't wear shoes indoors. heel stomping around is much, much louder than ball-walking.
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