My son Joseph never crawled, but he walked at 14 months. He still falls down occasionally, has poor coordination, hates to ride the bike. He just turned 7. the only activities he enjoys are jumping on the trampoline and swimming. He does not have much muscle tone either.
My dreams of taking him to little league baseball games seem so far off. I painted murals in his room of little boys playing sports, and it couldn't be further from who he is. The more I pressure my child to go out and ride his bike, the more he fights it. I can't make him do anything, and we all know that even for neuro-typical people, exercise has to be something we enjoy, or we won't do it at all.
I suppose it does get better as they get older, but bear in mind, all children are different, especially autistic children. Your daughter may never express any interest in physical activity, or there may be only one or two activities she enjoys. My advice is stick to the things she enjoys doing and let her do them often. If she enjoys running, take her to the park or let her run in the yard, a little every day (weather permitting). Let her practice the stairs, make it a game, put toys at the top and have her put them in a basket at the bottom, and reward her when it's over. Also, look into occupational therapy.
all the best,
Ang
Allegra - same with my ds. He did meet all developmental milestones on time (but on the "late" side of normal for crawling and walking). At age 3 though - it became very evident he had significant motor delays. He couldn't pedal a trike, couldn't go up or down stairs using alternating feet, etc.
He has made HUGE progress with PT, OT and tumbling classes. See if you could find a tumbling instructor who is willing to do one-on-one with your daughter. We did that for several sessions until ds got acclimated to the routine and then he joined a class. He went for 2 1/2 years and I think that helped more than PT! He also got PT and OT for 2 years. We are in a new town and I'm still exploring services for him. We've mainly been working on bike-riding and swimming this summer - which is a LOT of gross motor skill coordination, so I don't feel SO bad!
So, to give you hope - he is riding a 2-wheeler (not steering the greatest, but he's doing it!). And, he just turned 6 - so this is well within normal. He still has issues sometimes going DOWN the stairs using alternating feet.
This is a child who literally fell over air in his toddler years. For a while, we put it down to just being clumsy - but as fred said - once he got to 3 the delays became more obvious.
Do as MUCH PT, OT and tumbling as you possibly can (get good recommendations from other parents, of course!). It has been SO worth it for my ds!
Allegra, the girls have gross motor delays, too. They hit all of their early milestons on time (crawling, walking, etc.), but at around age three, it became apparent that they were not "graceful", as their pediatrician put it. They still, one month before they turn five, run with kind of a funny gait and aren't real good on the bicycles (they can peddle around on their big-wheels pretty kid, but have a hard time with two wheelers). It's improving with time, like everything else, but it's a slow process. Abigail is much stronger and more coordinated than Evie, though Evie does better at cognative tasks, so go figure. They're both in private physical therapy at the moment.My son has "significant gross motor" delays. He hit the early motor milestones within the normal range, but kind of stopped after 18 months. His gait and run are very clumsy. His arms are in the air when he runs--he looks like a toddler. He has very low muscle tone. We work with on the exercises daily and just keep him active and he is improving. I don't know that he'll be great at sports when he is older, but he is sure great at pre-swimming skills. We take him to the park a lot and encourage him to climb, etc. He's 3 1/2 and starting to clear his feet slightly when jumping.
C met his gross motor milestones on time, though within the tail end of the "normal" range. He walked at 15 months and I think it's a red flag if a child doesn't walk by 16 months but I can't remember for sure. However, he reached age 3. He excels at every sport he tries. Last year at camp he was the only 5 year old that to do backflips on the bungee trampoline. (I think the fact that he has absolutely NO FEAR comes into play here.) Our therapists have told us before that this is very atypical for an ASD child.Allegra, Ethan sat up at 12 mo. Had to have his head supported like an infant till 6-7 mo. Crawled 15 mo. Walked 17 mo. He is still very clumsy and has little stamina. We got small leg braces a month or so ago. I was so suprised to see how bent in his feet and legs were after seeing them so straight with the braces. These have helped. Also he has been getting private ot and p.t. this summer which has helped a lot. He looks very much like a toddler when he runs, can't manage stairs very well by himself yet. Will only walk short distances before "noodling" out. They all tell me this is all due to low muscle tone, which can get somewhat better but is lifelong and he will never be an athlete. Do you have access to pt? We try and spend as much time at the park as we can, short summers here. He loves the slide so is very motivated to climb the stairs. He is Sharletts age. Sharlet gets PT like once every 2 months or less for an hour or so. She is