Any reformed toe walkers?
MirandaHobbes
member
I'm pretty sure I've posted about this before. DS has toe-walked for years, but it seems to come and go. I see it almost all of the time now. Maybe it's the excitement of the holidays and him being out of school. His private OT at one time recommended brushing, but his public OT was a little more ambivalent. His dev. pedi is pretty practical, and said it seemed to be a big commitment, and unless everyone was on board, it probably wouldn't be effective. (I.e. his public school would have to brush him regularly) I brought up toe-walking at his IEP eval and everyone, including the OT, said it didn't seem to be a problem. He qualifies for DAPE now, and that specialist is working on getting him to run heel to toe instead of toe to heel.
Should I be doing anything else? We've been turned down for PT in the past, perhaps we'd qualify now? His doctor checks his feet/tendons every year and says they aren't tight, and that the toe-walking is sensory and thus not covered by OT (at least, that's how I understood him).
Re: Any reformed toe walkers?
Not sure if this helps, but my cousin's DD is having toe walking issues left over (always has been a toe walker) after wheelchair walker to braces to dorsal surgery to training braces now working on walking completely independently.
She recently finished robotics therapy (age 9 btw) and in therapy she toe to heel walked really well for quite a lot of time; however now that it is done they have to verbally cue her all the time. They know she can do it, so I see their frustration and can see yours. Maybe the other posters are right about a stim type behavior.
DD toe walks and loves joint compression, however, with the orthotics/inward knee when fast walking/running - I think it may be a balance thing as well for her.
One day I decided to mentally remind myself to walk "heel-toe, heel-toe", I trained myself to walk on my heels after a few months of repeating the phrase in my mind.
I think I wanted to hear the clicking of heels from my big girl shoes, and toe walking wouldn't allow for that.
I had to make the decision to change - but this is my experience.