What it Means to be Autistic (Pt. 3)
Coordination, fine motor skills, and hypermobility
The purpose of my new eBook
I began writing this eBook after my son was formally diagnosed with Autism, at age 11.
I’d been pretty certain about both of us being Autistic for a few years, so it didn’t come as much of a surprise to me… but my spouse and son didn’t have the benefit of 20 years’ experience and two relevant post-secondary degrees to help them process this new information.
I wanted my family, and all families, to have access to easy-to-understand, neuro-affirming, non-pathologizing information about autism.
I recently shared an introductory article and an article about sensory differences, both of which included elements from my new eBook. The following is another excerpt from that book, with a focus on our physical differences.
Moving our bodies: Proprioception & coordination
Some Autistic people struggle with proprioception and coordination. Proprioception is what helps us be aware of our surroundings, and how our body moves through our environment.
Coordination issues don’t mean you can’t play games, sports, or do other physical activities that you enjoy. Lots of Autistic people enjoy sports or other ways of moving our bodies. In fact, there are several famous Autistic athletes.
However, issues with proprioception and coordination may mean you bump into things a lot, spill and break things, or accidentally injure yourself more often than others.
Fine motor skills
A lot of Autistic folks struggle with fine-motor skills.
Fine motor skills are skills that help us do smaller, more precise, or delicate movements. They help us do things like button up shirts, tie our shoes, and write.
Gross motor skills are skills which help us with big movements like running, jumping, and climbing.
People can have strong gross motor skills but struggle with fine motor activities, or vice-versa. We can be good at one and not the other, or we can have difficulty with both types.
A lot of Autistic students dislike writing or find the physical act of writing challenging. Some people even find it painful.
Occupational Therapy (OT) and other types of supports can help us improve our motor skills, and accommodations can help make them a bit easier for us.
Hypermobility
Hypermobility refers to excessive movement in our joints and tendons. Hyper means “too much, above average, high, a lot”, etc. and mobility refers to movement.
A lot of Autistic people have hypermobility in our tendons, joints, or other parts of our anatomy. Hypermobility can impact joints (like knees and elbows), or tendons, which are the tough but flexible bands of tissue that connect muscle to bones.
We have about 4,000 tendons throughout our body. Tendons make it possible for us to bend our knee, rotate our shoulder, and grasp with our hand. They’re also the part of our ankle we tend to injure when we “roll” (sprain) our ankle.
If you have hypermobile tendons, like I do, you may roll your ankle or dislocate joints more easily than others.
If someone has a lot of hypermobility, they may be diagnosed with a hypermobility spectrum disorder, such as EDS.
What is EDS?
EDS stands for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is one of many hyper-mobility spectrum disorders.
While most cases of EDS are considered rare, some of the more common types are:
- Hyper-mobile hEDS
- Classic cEDS
- Vascular vEDS
People with EDS may have:
- joint hypermobility
- loose, unstable joints that dislocate easily
- joint pain and clicking joints
- extreme tiredness (fatigue)
- skin that bruises easily
- digestive problems, such as heartburn and constipation
- dizziness and an increased heart rate after standing up
- problems with internal organs, such as mitral valve prolapse or organ prolapse
- problems with bladder control (stress incontinence)
Everyone’s experience is different
What it means to be Autistic will be different for every person, and each person will experience these common traits in different ways. You may not experience all of them, and you may experience some of them more intensely than others.
There’s no right or wrong way to be Autistic.
If you’re wondering what it means to be Autistic, and how you (or your child) may have come to receive the diagnosis, my series of articles and eBook will explain some of the traits that many Autistic people tend to have.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
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