How to Stop Tip Toe Walking without Casts or Shoes
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What Causes Tiptoe Walking?
Tiptoe walking or "toe walking" is a sign of a child's inability to transfer their weight from the heel to the toe. (We would call it a typical heel-to-toe walk.)
It's natural to want to force the heel to the ground using casts or shoe inserts to create a typical heel-to-toe walk.
But as I always say, "With force, you get force, and with rotation you get movement."
A number of things can interrupt a child's ability to weight transfer through the foot.
Things that could cause toe walking are:
- the child's foot could have been pulled on the wrong way at birth or
- the child lacks natural muscle tone, and so on.
What's more important than the causes of toe walking is for you to note that your child has an inability to weight transfer through the foot.
The transitional skill that is lost here is the child's or person's ability to start with flat feet, go up on their tiptoes, and then bring the heels back down to the floor.
This is what makes Movement Lesson™ different from any other therapy. For anyone to move better you have to go back to the movement foundations.
So to improve, stop, fix (whatever word you want to use), toe walking you must go back and teach the feet movement foundations so the feet can start acting more like feet should.
What is Weight Transfer?
Weight transfer is a foundational skill in a movement that all persons (babies, children, and adults alike) must have to create functional movements.
Functional movement means a person can get in and out of, or transition between, two movements using rotation, weight transfer, and counterbalance.
For example when a baby can independently get in and out of sitting without falling or pulling themself into position, or when a person can go from standing to walking and back to standing without falling or pulling themself into position.
How to Stop or Fix tiptoe walking without Casts or Shoes
As you will notice in the video, I talk about using gravity and weight transfer through the pelvis to help the body understand where the floor is so the heel can naturally come to the floor.
It's a mouth full, but if you take a minute and think about what I am saying, I am using the natural principles of movement to influence a body that has compromised movement patterns.
These movement patterns can be associated with Autism, Cerebral Palsy (CP), or simply messed-up feet.
But the solution is simple, teach the feet what it means to weight transfer.
While the video shows me in a clinical setting, you can work on your child's toe walking from home.
Take Segment One Training to understand how the body should work and when it's not working and how you can apply the movement foundations (rotation, weight transfer, and counterbalance) to better your child's movements.
You will notice in the second half of the video I am using the Movement Lesson™ laser to excite the ATP in the foot's muscles. This makes the foot more responsive to rotation, weight transfer, and counterbalance.
When you teach the foot how to do these three things, then you can see the heel start to come to the floor and you will watch in amazement how your child begins to enjoy a more comfortable foot posture.
To learn more about Segment One Training, Click here
To learn more about the Movement Lesson™ Laser Series, Click here
Disclaimer: Please note that this is not medical advice. Using the Laser Series or Segment One training does not guarantee your child's feet problems will be fixed.
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