Gait/walking ?

Post Reply New Topic

Disclosure: I am a sociologist who studies autistic adults. I have been on medical leave for a few months but I still check in here sometimes.

It's been a few years since I actively tried to research gait in autistic people. I have personally noticed that if you're paying attention and are familiar with many autistic people in-person, it's pretty easy to spot. It usually looks like this:

-Bouncy feet (from toe-walking)
-Either no swinging of the arms, mechanical swinging of the arms, or a posing of the arms
-Autistic people often wear shoes that you might associate with old people (perhaps these orthothics someone mentioned?)
-Autistic people don't look around while they're walking
-When they have a walking companion who is talking, they appear to be not listening and faking listening
-Able to text and use other electronic devices while walking, but seem to prefer to sit while using them
-Does not easily merge with crowds, seems to think about it

I am NT, so I don't really like comparing NTs to animals, but if you tear down the NT walk, I think it is a functional walk for a social animal looking for predators and prey:
-Weight evenly on feet in anticipation of having to EITHER run or stand ground
-A loose swinging of the arms, ready to strike
-A variety of shoes, reflecting the personality and body type
-Constant, unthinking looking around, even while talking/listening
-Can talk, listen, text etc all at the same time with ease
-Easily merges with crowd movement, appears not to think about it

I have also noted autistic people "correcting" their walk to be "less autistic" when they have seen that I noticed them. This was telling. It would be normal to feel awkward when you see a person watching you, but not normal to change the way you walk for their observing benefit.

I've been told that I walk in a strange fashion before, my dad likes to comment "I could only see you in the distance, but I could tell it was you from the walk".

Unfortunately, I do have a habit of slouching, and I'm aware of this, so if I catch myself slouching then I try to walk with my back up straight. My arms can be an issue, sometimes I swing them too much and people joke that it looks as if I'm attempting to take flight, but sometimes I don't swing them enough and that can look odd.

Sometimes I do walk normally, but people do comment when I start going into what they call "that walk". Once someone said it was swagger, yet somehow I doubt that I have swagger. (It was probably sarcastic).

Also, @SocofAutism- who are these magical NT's who can multitask like that? Damn, that's impressive, but also potentially dangerous depending on the situation.