Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Venturing a post about sensory processing

As mentioned by previous posters- toe walking can be indicative of a lot of things. Usually its either shortened heel cords or a sensory thing. Walk around on your toes then on your flat feet. You do feel more on your toes! As to the description your visit to the pediatrician, that can be attributed to sensory issues or to just plain being overwhelmed or nervous.
Disclaimer that I am an OT so I am seeing a nail!

Ace, I wasn't trying to be offensive and hope I wasn't. Just speaking from my experience.

One example: I once had an OT tell me with great sincerity after a highly unscientific and biased evaluation that DS's autistic symptoms were entirely due to his difficulty in procssing sensory stimuli-- not to his autism.

DeeDee

This may or may not be relevent, please disregard if it does not apply. I know a young boy that is a toe-walker, after a few years of this he was diagnosed with duchanes (Spelling. It is a difficult diagnoses, and a form of MS). I am no expert, but it may be somthing to look at.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Alexsmom, Thank you for the correction, my stepson's nephew has this and walks on his toes. They miss diagnosed him for a few years.

We have several toe-walkers in my family: my sister, myself, and at least one of my sister's sons to name a few. We may be somewhat dysfunctional in other ways, but I haven't noticed anything that might be related to toe-walking. For us, it probably is a sensory thing. We seem to have other sensory sensitivities as well. Everyone said my sister and I would outgrow it, and we still haven't at 40+. I tell people it's the ballerina in me trying to get out, or else wear high heels. :-)

NP, Edwin! Sorry if I came across abrupt - something came up right as I got the right spelling, and I only had time to paste and post.

Just a quick question...is she taking any medicine for allergies like dimetapp or anything...my DS had several undiagnosed food allergies; he was perpetually congested; and we gave him medicine so he could breathe (because our ped dr said that food allergies were so rare....blah blah blah...but no answers) Anyway, antihistamines can make a highly sensory kid zoom. You hadn't mentioned any; so I just felt like I should add my experience/two cents. The energy is still there; but not the "zooming.":)

I really appreciate everyone's input. It helps to have different perspectives.

I purposely spent a few days away from the board, reading, reading, reading, observing DD a little differently, and discussing everything with DH. The one thing we think, so far, is that DD's interpersonal skills lean her away from Asperger's. She's quite perceptive of other people's thoughts and feelings already. However, it's helpful to know, DeeDee, that there are special difficulties in diagnosing girls with Asperger's. We are certainly not able to diagnose her ourselves.

I'm also pausing (deep breath) so I can muster my energy before knocking on our ped's door to pitch my concern.

The OT route sounds good... I am a fan of OT. But at what point would it be indicated to seek additional testing from a developmental psychologist? I'd like to have that plan in place before agreeing to an intervention. In general, I'm not one to treat the symptoms before accurately diagnosing the problem.

As for toe walking, the cancer work-up was for leg pain that has been one-sided and lasted more than a year. Not growing pains, apparently, so could be an osteo sarcoma, lymphoma, or juvenile arthritis (she also has rashes). We await the blood work, but no malignancy was found on xray. What they did determine was that DD has a leg length discrepancy of 4 mm. Apparently adults with leg length discrepancies typically have one leg 4 mm longer than the other, but DD is only 42 inches tall. This could be the reason for her toe walking.

However, if someone could tell us why she uses her feet as a second pair of hands... and steps on absolutely everything, or sits and uses her feet to touch everything... we could have a diagnosis.

Again, many thanks for your insights.

Twinkletoes - did it go well on Tuesday?

Seablue, I'd go ahead and work on scheduling an evaluation (both private and school district) ASAP. The reason: it can take months to get to the top of the waiting lists for good private doctors, and the schools are allowed a period of 60 *school* days to get their evaluation done. Getting on the list now makes it more likely that you will have information when you need it.

Like you, I'd rather know what I'm dealing with first, before deciding how to treat symptoms. I'd put a neuropsych or developmental pediatrician before the OT for that reason.

I'm glad the xray is looking good... and I hope that there's a relatively easy solution (lifts in the shoe?) that will help your DD feel better.

DeeDee