Proprioception

A post discussing what Proprioception is and how it presents in my life as an autistic person.

Since last week’s post was on Interoception, it seems only fitting to write about Proprioception this week. Proprioception is the sense of the location, action, and movement of your body’s parts without including vision. It encompasses not only your extremities individually but the trunk of your body as well. Your skin, muscles, and joints have receptors in them that continually communicate with your brain through your nervous system to let you know what your body is doing. This happens both consciously and non-consciously via reflexes. The signals help your body respond to the space around you and adjust accordingly to any changes that occur.

Proprioception is what helps you stabilize yourself to stand upright, maintain balance, and walk on uneven terrain. It helps you avoid running into objects, shift your weight when carrying items, drive a vehicle, dance, and paint (among many other things!). People who struggle with coordination & balance, are clumsy, lack motor control/planning, have poor posture, and/or have trouble recognizing their own strength have what is referred to as Proprioceptive Dysfunction, Impaired Proprioception, or Low Proprioceptive Awareness.

From Wikipedia, “Proprioception is permanently impaired in patients with joint hypermobility or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome [and] is also permanently impaired in physiological aging (presbypropria) and autism spectrum disorder.”

Autistic people may feel uncomfortable with their bodies in a state of rest and have a harder time remaining still. They may require more proprioceptive input to help increase their awareness. This can present through sensory-seeking behaviors like hand flapping, jumping, pushing, climbing, running, toe walking, hanging on stuff, banging or crashing into things, or chewing items.

Having low proprioceptive awareness may be seen in people who use too much force when interacting with objects or play too rough with others. Using too little pressure to complete a task is also in this category. If your posture is considered poor, you slump or lean, you slide out of your seat, and/or have to hold your head up with your hand or rest it on something while doing an activity it can be indicative of proprioceptive dysfunction as well.

It is also possible to only temporarily have impaired proprioception like when you are tired, on certain substances, or drunk. The field sobriety test that the police use to determine if someone is intoxicated where they ask you to touch your nose with your eyes closed is considered a proprioception test. Another way to test your proprioception capabilities is through the Romberg test where you stand without any support with your feet together, hands at your sides, and your eyes closed to see if you can maintain your balance and remain upright without swaying for 30 seconds to a full minute.

I had my partner watch me while I did this test, and I did sway during it. Other ways that I have noticed low proprioceptive awareness in my life recently include when I used my vegetable peeler, pushed too hard, broke it (and then started crying), when I threw my dirty clothes in the pile with (what my spouse proclaimed was) unnecessary force, when I walked briskly through my house and ran into things that haven’t moved but I am just incapable of carrying my body on a path that doesn’t inadvertently smash into stuff no matter how many times I have taken that same route, and when I held my pen so tightly while journaling that I hurt my hand.

While proprioceptive awareness can be impaired directly after exercise when your body is fatigued, the practice of exercising is one of the suggested treatments to increase your proprioception.

Suggestions to Help Strengthen Your Proprioceptive Awareness:

Yoga: improves balance and muscle strength

Tai chi: boosts proprioceptive awareness in the legs

Physical Therapy: improves motor skills

Somatosensory Stimulation Training: experimental therapy that uses vibrations

This list does not include Proprioceptive Activities to do in the moment (such as sensory-seeking stimming) but rather it is a list of practices to potentially implement in life to help increase proprioceptive awareness overall. If you are looking for ideas for Proprioceptive Activities, check out this extensive list. It is geared toward autistic children/students but could be applicable to many people. I’ll be playing the “sandwich game” between my bed and my cat later tonight.

Do you experience low proprioceptive awareness? If so, how does it present in your life?

~The Overstimulated