My previous post made me think of something.

[conuly]

When I was a child, I was very clumsy. Very, very clumsy. Like, omg. (My fine motor skills were not great either.)

And when I was a child, I frequently bit my own tongue. Hard. When I was eating, when I was talking, during dance class.

And then I grew out of biting my own tongue (thank goodness) and eventually grew out of the worst of the clumsiness, though I've been left with a lingering fear that I will be clumsy and knock into people.

If the girls bite their tongues hard enough to make them cry, I haven't seen or heard any of it. It this something common to kids, or was it a "just me" thing? (And if it's the latter, is it an autism thing? I hate asking that question, because you know what happens is that anybody who is autistic and does whatever-it-is will say "oh, gosh, yes" and then your data is completely skewed. But still.)

Comments

[the_rck]

I am not autistic but, even at almost 50, still occasionally bite my tongue or my cheek or my lip hard enough to draw blood. It's always while I'm eating.

[conuly]

I'm sorry to hear that, and yet relieved.

[goss]

Oh lordy, yes. I feel like I bite either my tongue/gum/inner part of my lip quite often, even as an adult, when talking or eating. Also, it is disturbing to me how frequently water goes down the wrong passage when I'm drinking. /o\

[conuly]

Stay up too late, start to choke to death on my own spit. Gosh, the human body sucks.

[zhelana]

One of my students in the autism classroom I used to work in did that every time he was eating. He actually went to special classes after school to teach him how to eat because otherwise he shoved all his food in one corner of his mouth and then chewed on his tongue.

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

It's something common to kids (source: have kids, was a kid). Your girls are either unusually coordinated or bite their tongues on someone else's watch.

[conuly]

Oh, good.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I think I recall biting my tongue (and even more commonly, my lower lip) quite frequently as a kid. Mind you, I was also terribly uncoordinated until I started going to judo practice. I'm less clumsy now, but I still tend to bite my lower lip (effing HARD) while chewing gum. I don't know, it just happens.

Felix (according to psycho people, officially not on the spectrum) also regularly bites his lip. (There is no missing it. He is very vocal about his pain.) Julian has begun only recently and I'm not sure whether he's genuinely doing it, or just pretending because he likes to keep up with his big brother...

But anyway, I expect this is quite common, just not talked about much. Maybe the girls just won't admit it. I mean, I don't admit when I've bitten my lip while chewing gum even if it's hard enough to bleed and hurt for three days.

[conuly]

It's possible they just don't say anything. Maybe it doesn't hurt them as much as it hurt me - they don't bite down as hard or something.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It's more of a tooth/jaw alignment thing. Developmental clumsiness stems largely from the fact that the parts of a growing body don't all grow at the same rate, and childrens' mouths in particular go through a lot of changes.

I don't recall biting my tongue much in childhood, but in the past year I've been biting it a lot, and also occasionally when I chew, my teeth misalign and scrape together. This is due to my gum surgery having changed my bite; I'm hoping the problem resolves itself over time.

[conuly]

Developmental clumsiness stems largely from the fact that the parts of a growing body don't all grow at the same rate

I had to explain this to one of Ana's friends over the summer. She was bemoaning the fact that she couldn't do ballet anymore because she just got clumsy and I said, offhand, "Well, of course, because you're taller and you're also developing" and she went "What does that have to do with it?"

B, your mother is a nurse, ask her and she'll confirm it. (When Ana came out of her dance class I cornered her teacher and her teacher laughed and went "Duh!" at us. Ana's friend was much relieved, and possibly more relieved when she asked her mother.)

I hope you adapt quickly!

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Me too; I'll probably have to have a bite-guard made to wear at night: eww, but oh well.

Haha, "What does that have to do with it?" - not only are the proportions and centers of balance of one's body all changing constantly and unevenly, but one's entire brain and nervous system are being fundamentally re-wired, that's all. With all the changes puberty brings, it would be easier if one could just pupate through it, but unfortunately that's not an option.

A book you might like is The Body Has a Mind of Its Own (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17519549) - your girlies might like it too, now they're old enough for adult popular science; also The Canon (http://www.natalieangier.com/main.php). Enjoy!