Part of providing respectful and full support to autistic people with motor difficulties (and really anyone who experiences a physical disability) is giving people autonomy over their own bodies. Part of this is to give people the autonomy to choose which aspects of their movement or motor skills they would like to change or seek support for, and what aspects of their movement they consider ‘good enough’.
Many of us autistic people experience some degree of disability in motor development. It is not uncommon for people with autism to have to consider what they think “good enough” motor function might look like, given their individual situation.
A 2023 study by Gowen et al. explored the perspective of autistic adults with coordination problems and highlighted some of the factors that may influence people when deciding what exercise is “good enough” for them. Many autistic adults who experience coordination problems have never received formal support for their mobility disability and regret that they did not have access to it, as coordination problems can impact many areas of our lives.
We are often motivated to work tough to develop movement skills that are meaningful to us, even if our coordination difficulties mean that we have to spend much more time practicing movement than the average person. With enough practice, we can often and do improve our motor skills. However, for many of us, certain activities always remain a challenge, even after intensive practice.
So what to do when such a situation arises? As study participants shared, we learn ways to cope and work with the movement we have. Essentially, we often have to accept that certain aspects of our motor function are “good enough” and find alternative ways of doing what we want and need to do.
We may need to embrace each other interdependence and ask for aid with some activities. Of course, this interdependence, or need for support from others, is something we share with every other person on the planet and certainly should not be a source of shame.
Nor should we be ashamed of the other ways we could adapt our lives to deal with the challenges of movement.
We may need to change the setup in the kitchen – we may need to pour liquids over the sink to avoid a huge mess.
In some situations, we may need physical support in the form of handrails to maintain balance, or support in the form of braces or walking sticks when walking due to pain associated with hypermobility or other conditions affecting our muscles and joints.
We may apply our kitchen utensils in unconventional ways, or we may find that eating with our hands is better suited to certain dishes. We can learn to wear obscure clothes when eating to prevent stains from appearing.
We can spend years practicing exercises and adjusting our posture or gait pattern to reduce the pain that comes from having difficulty feeling where our body is in space. Perhaps we could get to a point where we don’t feel pain. Perhaps, however, we could through these efforts alleviate but not eliminate our pain, ultimately decide that we are content enough with how we feel, and as such, accept our current way of moving as “good enough.”
Two people can have the exact same motor challenges and each make different decisions about what is “good enough” for them, based on who they are as people and what their individual life circumstances are at the moment. Any number of factors can influence this decision-making process, and ultimately all factors that seem crucial to a person are crucial.
It’s also crucial to realize that what we consider “good enough” can evolve over time, and we can adjust our goals to suit our movement as life circumstances change. Movement that worked well in childhood may be different from what we need at any point in our adult lives. As life progresses, we may feel the need to update our exercise priorities, learn fresh skills, or make other adjustments.
For those of us who work in professions such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy and support people with movement disabilities, respecting each person’s decisions about what is “good enough” is part of providing non-judgmental care that acknowledges our patients’ lived experiences with movement .
And for those of us who move differently, sometimes we find that our unusual ways of moving through the world, ways that work well enough for us, they can aid improve our well-being and become a part of ourselves that we embrace.
Reference
Miller, H. L., Licari, M. K., Bhat, A., Aziz-Zadeh, L. S., Van Damme, T., Fears, N. E., Cermak, S. A., & Tamplain, P. M. (2024). Motor problems in autism: co-occurrence or feature? Developmental Medicine and Pediatric Neurology, 66(1), 16–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.15674
Gowen, E., Earley, L., Waheed, A., and Poliakoff, E. (2023). From “one huge clunky mess” to “a fundamental part of my character.” Experiences of autistic adults in motor coordination. PloS one, 18(6), e0286753. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286753
Petty, S., & Ellis, A. (2024). The importance of autistic movements. Autism: an international journal of research and practice, 13623613241262151. Previous online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241262151