Toe Walking (An Autistic Person's Perspective)

Autistic people often walk on their toes. I'm an autistic person, and that's something I do. Here's why.

I have autism, and I make videos about autistic consciousness and life on the autism spectrum.

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My name is Christian Swenson. I'm a 29-year old autistic man with interests in philosophy, art history, and all sorts of things. I made this channel to talk about the experience of autism from an autistic perspective. Autistic consciousness isn't normal consciousness. The autistic world isn't the normal world. I want to explore that world with you.

[ilovegreen]

Mum of 5 diagnosed kids.
My kids did this aswell as twirly circles.
I noticed a boy at child care doing this. His mother just wanted us to remind him to walk flat footed. I told her it can be a red flag for autism & he had regular melt downs too. Denial- she didn’t want to know. I felt sorry for that boy not getting assistance and school is soon❤️

[mishmosh]

I have always been a toe walker. Now that I’m approaching middle age and am experiencing health problems, I feel like my toe walking is becoming a problem. My feet are overly stiff, and have caused excruciating pain. I’m trying to retrain myself, only now, to walk heel to toe.

Looking back, the main reason I walked on my toes was twofold. Number one—I hated the way the ground felt on my feet. I wanted to minimize contact with uneven flooring, bad carpet textures, crumbs and dirt. Secondly, I wanted to walk as silently as possible, because I grew up in a stressful and abusive household, and wanted to attract as little attention as possible.

[user]

As an autistic person, I can't say I 100% agree with you about the energy flow, but I see where you're coming from.

[arnowinnertz]

As a child I walked on tiptoe a lot, even now when I walk barefoot, for example in my apartment, I walk on tiptoe.
I also noticed some time ago that I can never relax my shoulders when I walk, they are always like cramped.

[andrecouture]

I have the double whammy of toe walking and postural sway.

That combination makes it a lot more fun and comfortable to walk on uneven ground than flat hard ground.

[DedHedZed]

I am a ninja. Always have been. Always will be.

[VikingMale]

As a child I walked tiptoe, my parents took me to a doctor, then I was sent to a specialist, he said I had club feet and they butchered my feet. At 5 years I got my Achilles tendons on both legs cut and stretched, then at 7 they cut up my feet and tried to reconstruct my arches. I have had pain and walking problems since 1975.

[nataliedelacruz]

I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD. Now I am suspecting I'm on the autism spectrum... Excessive day dreaming, misophonia, toe walking, jumping or pacing around has always been prevalent. I still do toe-walking, it has manifested into wearing heels on a daily basis... I'm not really sure how to move forward from here. It's just so interesting to find another stim that I do. After learning about this correlation between toe-walking & autism, I'm definitely going to look more into haha... It's just really intimidating if I'm being honest. Thanks for the video!

[francollins]

OH MY GOSH this hit SO many marks, I'm a toe-walker, callouses on the toe-knuckles, I've ALWAYS had muscular calves, and the tightening feels also related to my long-time signature position: the squat. Another thing I'm really picking up on in what you're saying, regarding the allowance of energy flow – slowing down. I've often felt that my consciousness is either moving at a pace much faster than everyone around me, or much much slower (depending on the situation/activity). I've often felt pushed to match the pace of everyone else, and I think for me that's much of what that tightening is about.

[MsShannruggles]

Mostly tend to catch myself TOE WALKING in grocery stores when im in deep thought about what i need to get and then correct myself to walking normally


Minding the socialphobia had always been a big thing too..

Ive only recently been suspecting im on the sutusm spectrum because that at least explains a lot of stuff that has happened

[artisticautistic]

I do it so I make less noise when I walk

[sashasaettele]

I'm a little late here, but I wanted to share my experience with toe walking regardless.

I've been toe walking since I can remember and I find, that it is a whole combination of things that make me do it.

1. Sensory issues
I hate wearing shoes in the house or on particular outdoor surfaces like sand and grass, because I kind of need to feel the surface that I'm walking/standing on. But whenever I am barefoot, my soles stick to the ground or I get small stuff stuck to the soles like crumbs, tiny stones, leaves etc. or there's a wet patch that i step into and I instantaneously shudder and get overwhelmed. So one of my instincts is, to minimize the surface area that can come into contact with icky ground. Hence the toe walk.

2. Pain
Walking heel-toe does quite often cause me physical pain.
The pressure on the heel starts to really hurt after a while and the entire "flat-foot-posture" starts to cause tension and pain in my legs, (causes actual cramping) and my back right up to my neck which can cause really bad tension headaches. So when I walk on my toes (or high heels) there is less pain than with regular flat shoes or barefoot. Also the impact vibrations of the heel hitting the ground while walking hurts and is quite disconcerting to me.

3. Ease of motion
I find that toe walking is more "springy" than heel-toe. It takes less energy for me to "propel" myself forward when I'm not involving the heel. So I can walk/run faster and not get tired as quickly as when I go heel-toe. Toe walking also allows for a more quiet step, which is nice because it ties into Nr. 1 sensory issues. If I'm not stomping around like a drunk rhino, there is less noise I have to deal with.

[dragonboysam]

Hi, I have Asperger's and it's interesting hearing about this because I pretty much don't do this unless I have a cramp in my foot. I didn't know this is a thing the other autistic people might do.

[thekajalflaneur]

I have always walked on my toes and I thought it was just me! Now I know. Also I have tense shoulders almost always, I have to actively think to relax them often and I almost always forget that I have them tense.

[silencergirl]

I have Asperger and I've done this my whole life however it never once occured to me that walking on my toes was linked in any way! I run up and down stairs on my toes and it makes me feel more balanced!

[superfacil]

46 years. I continue walking on tiptoe, it's my natural way of walking, I feel super light and the balance is perfect. I often walk and run barefoot in the woods, it's the natural way of doing it. No diagnosis.

[cecilyerker]

I don’t toe walk, but I wear slides indoors at all times except in my bedroom because I hate the feeling of dirty floors touching my feet.

[stoverboo]

I walked on my toes at times, but I also walked on my heels and on the outside of my soles. It felt interesting!

[sandrahertel]

Thank you for the perspective. My oldest is on the spectrum. She isn’t a toe walking, she is actually a heavy footed walker. Loud and flat footed

[randysmith]

I'm fifty-three now and my feet are half as wide as they are long from always being on tiptoes. When I wear shorts people comment on how large and defined my calf muscles are. My therapist however doesn't seem to understand it when I say I feel like I'm floating and told me to try sensory deprivation tank.