A part of offering respectful and affirming assist for autistic folks with motor challenges (and anybody experiencing bodily incapacity, actually) is giving folks autonomy over their our bodies. One piece of that is giving folks autonomy in selecting what features of their motion or motor abilities they want to change or search assist for, and what features of their motion they really feel are “ok.”
Many people as autistic folks expertise a point of motor developmental incapacity sooner or later in our life. It’s not unusual for autistic people to want to mirror on what they really feel “ok” motor operate would possibly wind up wanting like for themselves, given their particular person circumstances.
A 2023 research by Gowen et al. explored the views of autistic adults with coordination challenges and highlighted among the elements that may affect folks in deciding what’s “ok” motion for them. Many autistic adults who expertise coordination challenges have by no means obtained formal assist for his or her motor incapacity, and need that they had been in a position to entry assist, as coordination challenges can have an effect on many domains of our lives.
We frequently are motivated to work onerous at creating the motion abilities which are significant to us, even when our coordination difficulties make it in order that we have to spend far more time practising a motion than the typical individual would possibly. With sufficient observe, we regularly can and do enhance our motor abilities. However for many people, there could be sure actions that all the time stay difficult, even after intensive observe.
So, what can we do when that state of affairs arises? Because the members within the research shared, we study methods of coping and dealing with the motion that we’ve. Basically, we regularly wind up needing to just accept that sure features of our motor operate are “ok”, and discover other ways of doing what we wish and must do.
We would discover that we have to embrace interdependence and ask for help with sure actions. After all, this interdependence, or want for assist from others, is one thing we share with each different individual on the planet, and positively shouldn’t be a supply of disgrace.
Nor ought to we really feel disgrace about every other methods we would modify our lives to deal with our motion challenges.
We would want to switch our setup within the kitchen—possibly we have to pour liquids over the sink to keep away from making a giant mess.
We would want bodily assist from handrails to maintain our steadiness in sure conditions, or assist from braces or canes when strolling attributable to ache related to hypermobility or different circumstances affecting our muscular tissues and joints.
We would use our utensils in an unconventional method, or we would discover that consuming with our fingers could be a higher match for some meals. We would study to put on darkish coloured clothes when consuming, to accommodate the eventual stains that come up.
We would spend years practising workouts and adjusting our posture or gait sample to cut back ache that’s come up, from it being tough to really feel the place our physique is in area. Maybe we would get to the purpose the place we’re pain-free. However maybe we would enhance however not get rid of our ache with these efforts, in the end determine that we’re glad sufficient with how we really feel, and as such, come to just accept our present approach of shifting as “ok”.
Two folks may have the very same motor challenges and every make totally different choices about what’s “ok” for them, based mostly on who they’re as folks and what their particular person life circumstances are in the mean time. Any variety of elements would possibly affect this resolution making course of, and in the end, any elements that really feel significant to an individual are legitimate.
It’s additionally necessary to acknowledge that what we really feel is “ok” can evolve over time, and we are able to select to regulate our targets for our motion as our life circumstances change. The motion that works nicely sufficient for us in childhood could also be totally different from what we’d like at any given level in our grownup lives. We would really feel the necessity to replace our movement-related priorities, study new abilities, or implement totally different lodging for ourselves as we go on in life.
For these of us who work in professions like bodily and occupational remedy and assist folks with motor incapacity, honoring every individual’s resolution making round what’s “ok” is a part of offering non-judgmental care that affirms our sufferers’ lived experiences with motion.
And for these of us who transfer in a different way, generally we discover that our atypical methods of shifting by way of the world, the ways in which work nicely sufficient for us, may help enhance our well-being and be components of ourselves that we embrace.
References
Miller, H. L., Licari, M. Ok., Bhat, A., Aziz-Zadeh, L. S., Van Damme, T., Fears, N. E., Cermak, S. A., & Tamplain, P. M. (2024). Motor issues in autism: Co-occurrence or function?. Developmental medication and baby neurology, 66(1), 16–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.15674
Gowen, E., Earley, L., Waheed, A., & Poliakoff, E. (2023). From “one massive clumsy mess” to “a elementary a part of my character.” Autistic adults’ experiences of motor coordination. PloS one, 18(6), e0286753. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286753
Petty, S., & Ellis, A. (2024). The that means of autistic actions. Autism : the worldwide journal of analysis and observe, 13623613241262151. Advance on-line publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241262151
