12 ms·
Signs of autism could be encoded in the way you walk
- blueprint 1y agofor some reason, this reminds me of Mahler's "autistic" stage of child development.
- dkga 1y agoI can confirm this happens. Source: self
- _def 1y agosame. Walking feels weird
- SketchySeaBeast 1y ago- toe-walking, walking on the balls of the feet - in-toeing, walking with one or both feet turned inwards - out-toeing, walking with one or both feet turned out. I thought that toe walking was called out two decades ago when I was in university - I remember it being mentioned in a psych class. Otherwise, that kind of includes everyone who doesn't walk with feet straight, doesn't it?
- hungmung 1y agoYeah at least a few kindergarten and elementary school teachers were watching out for toe walkers since at least around the mid-90's. Source: I know people.
- Der_Einzige 1y agoThe school bullies sniffed out autistic kids like pigs on truffles with this being a clear tell.
- nitwit005 1y agoI also remember that, and asymmetric baby crawling. That was decades back. I guess the real "news" is just that it made it into the DSM: > Having an "odd gait" is now listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a supporting diagnostic feature of autism.
- generalizations 1y agoBasically a measure of whether or not you make an effort to emulate your peers. If you naturally walk weird and don't care about fitting in, then....you're probably on the spectrum.
- hx8 1y agoThat's one potential explanation for gait differences. It's also possible that muscle development plays a role, or motor control, or sensory feedback, or a confluence of factors. I'd be particularly interested in seeing if these gait differences are limited to childhood, or if they persist into adulthood. It might simply be delaying a developmental step.
- generalizations 1y agoIIRC, toe-walking is actually healthier and puts less strain on the foot. It's a very good way to run long distance, once the muscles are acclimated. I suspect some of us still do that naturally as children for that reason and therefore only adjust due to societal pressure.
- Melatonic 1y agoI think you are mistaking toe-walking with landing fairly flat footed (the way most people tend to run with more minimalist barefoot style shoes) Running purely on the balls of your feet seems like its more of a sprinting thing
- generalizations 1y agoIt's def also a sprinting thing, but it can also be a normal running gait - it lets your leg muscles serve as shock absorbers. And if you've ever heard of the description of an athletic person as someone with a 'cat-like' walking gait, I think toe-walking is what's meant.
- swores 1y ago
- Telemakhos 1y agoPeople should be careful with basing psychological stereotypes on gait, as there's already an extensive legacy framework of stereotypes based on gait—are these new stereotypes meaningfully different medical observations grounded in facts, or are they just more stereotypes? Literature on Native Americans, for example, often claims that they walk on the balls of the feet in distinction to "the Anglo," who walks on his heels. For example: > Our sources say that Native Americans tended to land on the ball of the foot (a "forefoot strike"), or flat-footed ("midfoot strike"), rather than landing on the heel and rolling forward ("heel strike"). [0: 90] > Our sources indicate that Native Americans commonly walked with toes pointed straight ahead or turned slightly inward, rather than turned outward. [0: 91] I've pulled just one article here, but there's a huge trove of racial and ethnic gait stereotypes with all sorts of moral implications. It's important not to repeat that stereotyping when trying to address autism. [0] Ranalli, B. 2019. "Thoreau's Indian Stride." The Concord Saunterer 27: 89-110. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45271429 https://www.jstor.org/stable/45271429
- kulahan 1y agoYour 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.
- markburns 1y agoI 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 sometimes seem to be. Accents hold some special place in being so recognisable but I think there’s no obvious reason we wouldn’t have many other layers of physical culture like this. The signal is a bit harder to pick up but I’m sure it’s there. I’m not trying to make any particular point for or against damaging stereotypes here.
- msgodel 1y agoHuh. My last girlfriend told me I had "the gay walk" and never could figure out what she meant. I wonder if this is it.
- cindyllm 1y ago[dead]
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago> I had "the gay walk" Alright, that's enough HN for me today, I'm outie. Have a great evening y'all.
- northhnbesthn 1y agoUpvoted for account profile description.
- Weryj 1y agoHey, I'm the innie, lets see what HN has today… oh my
- kridsdale1 1y agoYou’re going to love today’s perk: a cake.
- racedude 1y agoSame rofl
- EvanAnderson 1y agoI emailed and spoke on the phone w/ my wife for a over a month before we met face-to-face. She told me, years later, she anticipated I'd have a particular gait. When we finally met I did not disappoint. She has described it as an "effeminate" gait. We recently moved into house with wood floors. I experience my daughter and wife's gaits in new way. Their footfalls have a distinct "thud-thud-thud" with the landing of their heels first, whereas mine are a lot lighter. My daughter definitely didn't inherit my gait, even if she did inherit some of my psychological and mental eccentricities.
- naysunjr 1y agoAm constantly reminding people my gait is off due to post surgery scarring internally creating a tension. Now everyone gonna think I’m autistic. Not that there’s anything wrong with being autistic. It’s the pop science mindset of the aggregate that’s the problem. There’s a lot of phrenology and humours type pseudoscience within these analysis. Social gossip effort to normalize what we are despite physics we cannot control making all those choices for us.
- blamestross 1y agoCool time to show off my gait/foot scan https://my.volumental.com/en/fleet_feet_rics/5128511c-cd88-46c8-83ca-cab8ee13227f/dynamic https://my.volumental.com/en/fleet_feet_rics/5128511c-cd88-4... Shoes are evil. Barefoot all the things. I think I might be a bit autistic...
- ASalazarMX 1y agoHey, at least your ankles look very healthy.
- ModernMech 1y agoThe most autistic people I know wear sandals all year round. People laugh about sandals and socks but you're right -- shoes are evil! I'll take looking like a dork over having sore feet all the time.
- hooverd 1y agoGermans, too
- imp0cat 1y agoI am sorry if this comes as and ad, but you need to experience some modern cushioned sneakers, ie: https://runrepeat.com/asics-gel-nimbus-27 https://runrepeat.com/asics-gel-nimbus-27 You can walk, run, stomp around in them all day and your feet will thank you. They do have some cons though. They are expensive and not very eco-friendly (hard to recycle).
- blamestross 1y agoI have such a pair for running longer distances. This scan was part of choosing them. They hurt a lot to get used to (Mostly barefoot for 8 years makes for a hard transition) but now they are good (necessary even) for jogging and distance running. They still feel like horrible rubber hooves you strap onto your feet.
- ModernMech 1y ago
- bluefirebrand 1y agoI 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
- cardanome 1y agoIn fact people with ADHD have also their peculiar walks: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/H1YsnuaYY-g 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 it can only give you hints or be a fun thing to talk about. > over-diagnose Both autism are ADHD are vastly under-diagnosed especially in women and adults. The fear of over-diagnosis makes no sense. There are very hard criteria for an diagnosis and it requires that every other explanation for the behavior is excluded before a diagnosis can be made. The reality it that it is a huge struggle for anyone with autism or ADHD to get any form of help or even diagnosis. Medication for ADHD works extremely well. Not for everyone but for like 70% and that is insanely good. Still there is so much fearmongering against it. But anti-depressants that can have much more serious side-effects and don't even work that well? Yes, they giving them like they are candy. Insanity. Struggle mentally in any shape or form? Oh, you must be depressed? What causes the depression? We will not dig deeper. Have your pills and be happy! But stimulants, no those are of the devil! Not to say that some people don't have just depression but the double standard is infuriating and often undiagnosed neurodivergence causes depression.
- 725686 1y agoFor some reason, I dislike seeing people that walk "funny". I am particularly disgusted by people that walk with their feet facing outward a little too much.
- cluckindan 1y agoWere you the schoolyard bully?
- 725686 1y agoI just said I dislike it, not that I, in any way, disrespected them or made fun of them. I was criticizing myself.
- SketchySeaBeast 1y agoAs a good Canadian, my immediate instinct is to apologize for my duck-walking ways, but nah.
- Krasnol 1y agoMight be interesting to find the reason. You might be susceptible to those kinds of unhealthy issues and have more of them without even realising it. You may look anti-social to your environment.
- cardanome 1y agoYeah people are wired to hate other people that fall outside the norm. It is especially painful when you are neurodivergend and undiagnosed and spent half your life wondering why people just hate you for being you. Thankfully people can get over it when they make an effort and educate themselves. So it is good that you admit you feel this way. Maybe you can learn to appreciate people being different or at least tolerate them more.
- Der_Einzige 1y agoHey at least you’re honest! A lot of people will try to bully you over a weird gait and specifically toe walking. Normies can and do judge people based off this shit. They do it all the time.
- ActorNightly 1y agohttps://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00302/full https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/arti... Roughly speaking, in our brains have to reconcile the internal models of the world with predictions and what we receive through stimuli. Neurotypical people can do this without issues, disregarding either one. Autistic people basically are wired to pay way more attention to external stimuli no matter how small it is. This sort of explanation makes the most sense, and can contextualize this as well. The gait trait is basically an optimization that comes from a higher sensory sensitivity and low value of "how should I be walking".
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- tibbar 1y agoI, too, walk funny. I distinctly remember an authority figure trying to teach me how to walk properly as an adolescent, and other people in my life occasionally comment on it. I guess I walk by swinging my legs from the top and placing my entire foot down evenly on the ground, which leads to very broad and shallow footprints on the beach. I am naturally a very slow walker and a bit unsteady.
- elric 1y agoHuman locomation is surprisingly complex. Maybe not that surprising, what with roughly 20 bones and 30 muscles in a single foot. That doesn't even include the joints needed for motion and the muscles required to move your legs or swing your arms while you walk. Allegedly some law enforcement uses gait analysis to identify and follow individual people on CCTV recordings. Gait has diagnostic value in some neurological conditions (like multiple sclerosis). Doesn't seem far fetched that a complex disorder like autism would also affect gait.
- paulpauper 1y agoIt's not some. now they all use gait analysis . higher resolution and frame rate makes this more reliable.
- boogieknite 1y agoand i use gait analysis to identify law enforcement. they all walk like theyre holding invisible barrels against their hips
- chneu 1y agoAllegedly? Gait analysis isn't anything new and has been used for a long time. Israeli airport security is a good example.
- fipar 1y agoYour law enforcement comment reminded me of reading this in Beautiful Evidence: https://www.edwardtufte.com/notebook/megan-jaegermans-brilliant-news-graphics/ https://www.edwardtufte.com/notebook/megan-jaegermans-brilli...
- ltbarcly3 1y agoVirtually everything about you is encoded in virtually everything you do. With enough intelligence and enough data, it's probably possible to determine with a high degree of accuracy what kind of mint you prefer (spearmint, peppermint, that other one) based on hearing you talk for 30s. In a world with AI systems that can be trained in an unsupervised way against basically all the data we can collect, the amount of information that can be accurately predicted about you is probably proportional to the number of bits of observational data about you available to to the AI, and I would suspect there is a roughly logistic relationship between bits available and the % of information it can reliably guess.
- emmelaich 1y agoI'm pretty sure you're right. There are a vast number of correlations waiting to be discovered. Were just waiting on sufficient data.
- sys32768 1y agoIt could also just be a sign of undiagnosed funnywalkism.
- hooverd 1y agoMaybe I'm just avoiding the worm.
- KyleJune 1y agoAnother difference that I believe is common is how your arms move when you walk. I was diagnosed at a young age. I found out I didn't swing my arms normally when walking after someone made fun of me for it in high school. I had to consciously think about swinging my arms for a while to figure out how to do it right. I still catch myself sometimes not swinging my arms correctly when walking or one of my arms resting at a 90 degree angle (T-rex arm). I'm not sure if it's the differences in gait that might cause people with autism to need less arm swinging for balancing or if swinging less causes them to develop those differences in gait.
- grayfaced 1y agoNever diagnosed but have suspicions and this describes me. I had comments earlier on in life but later I joined the Army. There is a lot of marching and I was frequently told to "swing my arms naturally". Other actions told to "act normal", very frustrating because my normal/natural is what they saw as a problem. So I would try to figure out what normal is and when I would try to emulate, they would tell me I'm thinking about it too much.
- ranger_danger 1y ago"toe-walking" was always called the "nerd walk" where I grew up.
- heraldgeezer 1y ago> out-toeing, walking with one or both feet turned out. haha couldn't be me...
- nailer 1y agoWhy is toe walking bad? The fastest humans and animals do it. Facts aren't data, but as a counter to the narrative in this article: in my own experience strong calf muscles likely related to autism have allowed me to place at running events as someone with <2 years competitive running experience, and my mother to be the national champion at her age range for a decade.
- Melatonic 1y agoNothing bad about it - as a fellow runner though I would say it is definitely more adapted for short distance speed work. Long distance though of course would still benefit from stronger calves. However toe walking also might make you tend toward tighter calves and posterior chain (which would leady to injury - especially when doing distance)
- paulpauper 1y agoSounds uncomfortable. putting so much weight on toes.
- kevsamuel 1y agoAustism often comes with terrible proprioceptive abilities so it makes sense.
- snickerdoodle12 1y agoCan't wait for AI-powered cameras that will let the government know you're neurodivergent.
- consumer451 1y agoNo need for AI. The future is now! > RFK Jr. says autism database will use Medicare and Medicaid info https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5391310/kennedy-autism-registry-database-hhs-nih-medicare-medicaid https://www.npr.org/2025/05/08/nx-s1-5391310/kennedy-autism-... Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43810561 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43810561 (254 points, 357 comments, 80 days ago)
- morkalork 1y agoThey just need to scan your posts and voilà: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41537-020-00125-0 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41537-020-00125-0
- ethagnawl 1y agoJust put a different number of differently shaped rocks in your shoes each day. (Credit to Doctorow's Little Brother)
- chneu 1y agoGait analysis has been a part of security for decades. Israel is probably the best example.
- kazinator 1y agoAlso, don't forget straight-toeing: walking with one or more feet pointing straight ahead. Yep, any of those three toe pointing directions mean you could have autism.
- nashashmi 1y agoLol
- northhnbesthn 1y agoThis is why I walk backwards.
- esseph 1y agoAnother trait that seems to occur in both people with ADHD but also ASD is toe walking, aka walking with the heel lifted in the air.
- brendoelfrendo 1y agoWait, is that why I do that?
- chneu 1y agoCould be. There are also a bunch of physical reasons this might happen. You could have just learned to walk weird, as well.
- boogieknite 1y agoour school had a top female sprinter in washington state who walked "in-toe" and i knew at least one other track athlete who looked up to her and intentionally changed gait to walk in-toe in order to be more like the star sprinter when im walking by people facing my direction (past a row of seats at the airport, into a movie theater, etc) i become self aware and try to walk as relaxed and invisibly as possible. probably only makes things worse. i think lots of people, autistic or not, are sensitive and adjust their gait unnaturally all the time. however toe-walking certainly seems difficult and i cant think of a reason id do it intentionally
- oasisbob 1y agoThat sounds like something a runner who knows that they have a tendency to heel-strike would do.
- trhway 1y agoour sports teacher (USSR, mid-80ies) specifically instructed us to try to put feet "in-toe" when running - the logic was that most people are naturally slightly "out-toe" so making explicit effort for "in-toe" would result in "straight-toe" during running and thus maximize the feet leverage.
- counterpoint123 1y agoI am supposed to be autistic and I walk really fast (family thing), I hate walking slowly and anyone doing it.
- ghushn3 1y agoWhat do you mean, supposed to be autistic? Like it's some destiny someone prophesied when you were conceived?
- nickjj 1y agoAre they accounting for foot shape? I remember growing up and I always internally joked that my step dad sounded like a cyberdemon from Doom 2 when he walks. It would shake the walls. He wasn't heavy but his feet are really flat so he naturally hits hard on his heels. I have some type of arch (I don't know if it's high or normal) but for my whole life people have half jokingly said I should stop sneaking up on them because I guess I walk really quiet. I never measured or tried to gauge how I walk but after doing a few paces around, I would say the balls of my feet and middle of my foot hit the ground right before my heel. I would say in terms of weight distribution it feels like 70% balls of my feet, 5% middle / arch, 25% heel on each step when it hits the ground. I really feel almost nothing near the middle of the arch, maybe ~30% of the outer part hits the ground.
- Lammy 1y agohttps://old.reddit.com/r/BrosOnToes/ https://old.reddit.com/r/BrosOnToes/
- lenerdenator 1y agoHonest question: What does this really bring to the table as a diagnostic tool for autism? By the time that you're evaluating gait, you're evaluating a lot of other things, too, since autism usually starts appearing during childhood. Obvious things, like trouble socializing, learning, and processing stimuli. I'm not a doctor or involved in any sort of diagnosis, treatment, or curing of diseases or conditions, but given that the current head of the US Department of Health and Human Services is a whackjob when it comes to autism and other neurodivergent conditions, I don't see any benefit in offering a way to label people as this or that based on how they walk.
- crtified 1y agoI would call this study a limited data-point, rather than a conclusion. Personally I'm more concerned with the definition of autism itself, which is so incredibly broad that it actually defies most generalisations. For any given symptom or characteristic there may be an autistic cohort in a vastly different part of the spectrum to whom it patently does not apply.
- jedimastert 1y agoIt's because the definition of autism isn't a collection of traits or symptoms; it's essentially defined by how other people experience you as opposed to how you experience the world, and there happens to be a lot of comorbidities, so to speak
- neurolesudiste 1y ago[dead]
- lenerdenator 1y agoThe problem is, people love to take limited data points and turn them into conclusions.
- strken 1y agoIs it meant to be a diagnostic tool? I would have thought that we'd be more interested in A) helping people with a gait that messed up their feet and tendons, and knowing that this is a comorbidity for ASD, or B) understanding how gait works generally.
- teaearlgraycold 1y agoOne 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.
- ghushn3 1y agoThey 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.)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- chneu 1y agoDon't get too bogged down on the modern "autism" term. It's almost certainly going to change as we learn more about it. Right now autism and neurodivergent cover huge swaths of behaviors/traits. This is especially true in the "social arena". Just like back in the day when every kid that bounced their leg got an ADHD diagnosis. Now we know ADHD presents in a ton of ways and is usually present with other personality traits.
- hbcondo714 1y ago> This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. https://theconversation.com/why-do-some-autistic-people-walk-differently-231685 https://theconversation.com/why-do-some-autistic-people-walk...
- bane 1y agoI dunno, this seems kind of junk sciency. There's all kinds of reasons to walk all kinds of ways. Walking on toes, or pointing your feet have almost never been a notable feature of people I know who are clearly on the spectrum. Conversely, the people I know who do have notable gaits all come from something else and none of them (as far as I know) have autism. Anecdata: My paternal side has some kind of innate preference for walking on your toes. I prefer it, my father's mother was well known to have done it, I have a couple cousins like that. While I can't speak for other family, I did go through a massive battery of aptitude and psych tests when I was young as part of the agonizing initiation into the curse of childhood giftedness. No autism. I've become very concerned in the last few years how our society produces diagnoses that turn into self-inhibiting labels that restrict personal development. Developing ones-self, as much as you are able, is an ancient and treasured tradition. Modernity seems to be leading us to the reverse and to shackle ourselves with the weight of imposed limitations.
- emmelaich 1y agoI knew of a young toe walker who turned out to have tendon problems and got surgery to have it fixed. For a while her parents thought she wanted to do ballet.
- LoganDark 1y agoI'm probably going to need surgery like that as well, it sucks how slow the process is to get any though.
- MangoToupe 1y ago> that turn into self-inhibiting labels that restrict personal development Say more. Why do you see these labels as inhibitory rather than liberatory? I have a complicated relationship with the label given a lack of a formal diagnosis and many years of accusations of ASD, and I haven't identified any positive side of a diagnosis and will likely never pursue one. But this doesn't mean the label hasn't helped me connect with others in my life with ASD, some very hand-wavy, and some non-verbal adults who must have live assisted. Do i actually have it? Does it even matter either way?
- glitchc 1y agoThis is pseudoscience at best. Multiple factors feed into a person's gait, from hereditary factors to physical differences in structure and growth patterns. It's going to be very difficult to eliminate all confounding variables, some of which include diet and local water quality. Best to completely disregard such "studies".
- benreesman 1y agoI'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 measure of normalcy selects for some pretty weird shit, and you can see that in the composition of the leadership today. American high school is about the nastiest thing you could get away with doing at scale in peacetime (go watch Euphoria sometime, no one I know has said it's anything but the uncomfortable truth).
- BadCookie 1y agoThis reminds me of a case report that I ran across about a boy on the spectrum whose toe-walking gait was resolved via lymphatic drainage massage: https://web.archive.org/web/20200506111344id_/https://www.clinmedjournals.org/articles/ijfa/international-journal-of-foot-and-ankle-ijfa-4-039.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20200506111344id_/https://www.cl... I am not sure if anyone has ever tried to reproduce this result on a wider scale.
- throwawaymaths 1y agoIsn't walking on the balls of your feet just "good athleticism"?
- ghushn3 1y agoMost 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!
- throwawaymaths 1y agoweightlifting yes, but not most track and field. It's pretty common for dancers to say "you should be able to slip a sheet of paper under the heel" for example. Pretty sure that's the case in tennis too. here's a stock photo of a runner: https://images.stockcake.com/public/7/1/2/7124d219-0531-40c1-944b-64902df0778d_large/marathon-runner-stride-stockcake.jpg https://images.stockcake.com/public/7/1/2/7124d219-0531-40c1... and here's one of volleyball: https://www.games-eshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/web.sp_.wvb_.LK_1-1.jpg https://www.games-eshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/web.s...
- TeaBrain 1y agoAs a former competitive tennis player, moving the weight to the balls of the foot is recommended when in a ready stance, or when actively shuffling. It isn't something that would be expected when walking.
- ghushn3 1y agoThey do this when they aren't competing? Just like, cooking, getting dressed, brushing their teeth? We're not talking about how to use the body when performing in their sport/art, but how they hold their bodies at all times.
- yndoendo 1y agoI 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 cannot stand clothing that makes noise while moving nor the sound of my own footsteps. It is also a means to allow for listening of my environment so I am not shocked or surprised. This also why it is extremely hard to spoke me. Silence is gold because it allows me filter in the environment. I want to hear the person walking behind me or were I cannot see. I want to walk up to a person and they don't know. This also reduces engagements. Walking on the ball of your feet is silent up to the point of stretching and cracking your bones. Walking on the heels is also silent when reducing push down with long heel to toe arch. All of course it is defined by the footage and how they squeeze during application to the to the ground dependent on the gait. The gait and noise it makes also highlights if an aspie has a grander stimulus to sound or not. Those that do not have auditory issues will easily pound their heels into their ground and make the floor shake.
- fsckboy 1y agoYours 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.
- novaleaf 1y agolots of households don't wear shoes indoors. heel stomping around is much, much louder than ball-walking.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoI forget to wear shoes outdoors unless I'm getting in a car, and I invariably step on sharp things. The bottoms of my feet are literally like leather though.
- andsoitis 1y agoPhrenology is discredited, is it not?
- vzvz 1y ago[dead]
- vazvuz 1y agoConsidering 25-30% of autistic individuals suffer from hypermobility / Ehler Danlos [1], finding out this affects their gait makes sense. Interesting to have no mention of this in the current study though. [1] Autism in the context of joint hypermobility, hypermobility spectrum disorders, and Ehlers–Danlos syndromes: A systematic review and prevalence meta-analyses https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13623613251328059 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13623613251328059
- neurolesudiste 1y ago[dead]
- HexPhantom 1y agoMotor differences in autism often get overshadowed by social and communication aspects, but they can have just as much impact on daily life.
- ChocolateGod 1y agoThis is just going to lead to more people self labeling themselves as autistic so they can win the most labels competition.
- p1dda 1y agoWhy would anybody need this tech? Are we hunting autistic people? Please stop.
- npteljes 1y agoAutism, like many other mental conditions, is not very well understood. For example, diagnostics is problematic, because the classification changed recently, and the diagnostics protocols involve observers of childhood development, which not every adult can provide. So, additional signs like the one described in the article could help people get diagnosed in the future. It could also help people hunt autistic people. But that's more of a problem with those people, and not with knowledge itself. Most pieces of knowledge can be used to hurt others.
- p1dda 1y agoYou're right that it can be difficult diagnosing children but that is why, at least here in Europe, kids are observed by medical professionals along with their parents over several visits to child and adolescent psychiatric units. Sometimes they are even admitted to get even closer to a correct diagnosis. Also, almost all parents will seek help very early if they have any suspicion of disease in their child which makes this tech useless and probably stigmatizing to kids and families.
- NoGravitas 1y agoUnder Kennedy's HHS? They certainly are.
- neurolesudiste 1y ago[dead]
- Huxley1 1y agoIt makes me think that we sometimes rely too much on a single behavioral trait to judge complex human differences. Gait can reveal some things, but it’s not really accurate enough to diagnose autism.
- HourOrTwo 1y ago[dead]
- torlok 1y agoAs usual when it comes to psychology, the study sizes used in the meta-analysis paper are comically tiny. It always blows my mind that psychology is treated as science, when the vast majority of the academic work is statistical studies on 3-4 digit sample sizes in arbitrary conditions or, even funnier, self-assessment.
- austin-cheney 1y agoAs someone who is raising an a child with ASD I do find articles like these interesting because they tend to apply exactly as described more often than not. What’s more interesting is looking at people’s reactions. One of the characteristics of ASD, but not applied to everyone with ASD, is exceptionally low social intelligence. People with low social intelligence tend to be extremely easily offended, fragile ego. They also tend to view absolutely everything from a “me first” perspective where everything in their perspective starts from themselves but completely lacks of introspection, like an extreme non-malignant narcissism. I see these conditions in many of the comments, where some people appear to show offense and immediately start talking about themselves.
- DrNosferatu 1y agoAmong many other things! Show me your gait and I'll tell you who you are.
- smeeger 1y agoi tried testosterone replacement therapy for about a month and it permanently increased the amount of pressure that i feel on my heels. as if i had been putting most of my body weight on the balls of my feet unconsciously.
- smeeger 1y agoi dont know whats worse about autism… having a messed up gait or having tons of people on HN gaslight you saying that your gait has nothing to do with autism
- amai 1y agoSigns of silliness are also encoded in the way you walk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_of_Silly_Walks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_of_Silly_Walks
- hammyhavoc 1y agoPeople have always remarked about my gait, so this is definitely a "no shit" kind of thing lmao.