@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic When I was younger, up into maybe early adulthood, if I stepped on a crack with one foot, I would want to (and often actually did) step on another crack in the same orientation with the same part of the other foot.
It's been decades since I did that. I'd forgotten doing it. Doing an autism questionnaire recently, I was struck by the number of autistic behaviours that have mellowed or stopped over the course of my life.
And to this day, when I'm walking down the sidewalk, I avoid stepping on the seams between sections. I set my stride so my feet always land on the solid surface.
@markusl@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic OMG you're just reminding me I had an entire sidewalk crack ritual for my walk to grade school. I knew every crack on the pavement and would step on or around them the same way.
My cobbler put Lulu¹ tips on the areas that frequently wear out for me first², as well as some small changes to the heel block.
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¹ A brand of metal half circles that usually go on the tips of shoes. She puts the "tips" both at the top of the shoe (as intended) and on the parts that wear out the most. This makes the dress shoes sound more clicky than normal.
Yes! My therapist said that my autism can be seen in my walking style.
My fine motor skills are pretty excellent...at cost of gross motor function. So I'm quite clumsy, and as a kid, I had a lot of injuries from falling. Apparently, at some point I learned to move myself extra carefully and deliberately in order to avoid falling.
@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic When I was about five years old, my mother spent what felt like an absurdly long time trying to coach me to swing my arms "naturally" when I walk. I found the whole exerices bizarre and bewildering - like I'm getting from A to B just fine, what the fuck else do you want?
In other news, people can still identify me from a distance by my walk.
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