Low Muscle Tone
Ask a pediatric physical therapist and you will likely hear the phrase, “low muscle tone” mentioned. But what exactly does it mean? Low muscle tone is a medical term used to describe how elastic tissues respond to stretching and contraction. Specifically, muscles and tendons respond weakly or stiffly to these two types of demand. The result is noticeable in movement patterns.
Muscle tone varies from individual to individual. There are basically three types of muscle tone- hypotonic, normal and hypertonic. In order to understand the concept of reduced muscle tone, we need to first understand the role of muscle tone in a body and its importance. Muscle tone is what allows us to perform movements gracefully, move about freely and lift items effortlessly.
Physical therapist are often questioned how they know when a child is stiff. Children Physical therapists used to rely on their own intuition, but now there is more support for clinicians in how to diagnose and measure stiff children. Experts in the field of muscle tone have come up with more guidelines on what different levels of muscle tone look like. Researchers are also doing more studies on muscle tone and giving evidence in why muscles grow weak during inactivity in children.
Muscle tone is a critical component of your child’s physical therapy program. In fact, it’s one of the five components that contribute to the over all functional movement abilities of your child. If your child is lacking muscle tone or has poor muscle tone, that can have a significant impact on their ability to be successful in school and at home.
Increasingly, researchers are delving into the role that hypotonia plays in developmental delays. Low muscle tone (hypotonia) is defined by the NINDS as 'a condition of weakened muscles that makes it hard to hold your body in an upright position or to control the movements of your trunk, arms, and legs.' When making this definition, they were focusing on hypotonia associated with certain motor disorders.
Children with low muscle tone share certain characteristics, Martin et al., explained in their article. American Occupational Therapy Association’s HealthPartners Institute provides the following traits of children with low muscle tone: impaired posture, weak muscles, poor movement coordination, lack of endurance to exercise, limitation in physical skills/independence, poor attention span, nervous system dysfunction, delayed development of gross motor skills.
The goal of this post is to discover what the research says about what is required for children's gross motor skills. This will be done by giving examples of the points covered in the study and how they are interpreted into parent friendly terminology.
Muscle tone is the readiness of your muscles for action; where as strength is how much power is in your muscle. You can have strong muscles but not be toned or you could be very toned without being too powerful. And sometimes it’s hard to tell if you are strong or toned, because you can’t feel your own muscles! If this is the case, ask a friend to give you an honest opinion.
Normal muscle tone is an important part of developing a child's physical development. When a child has normal muscle tone they develop various skills such as the ability to crawl, walk and even raise their arms when laying on their stomach. A lack of normal muscle tone puts a child at risk for developmental delays and difficulties later in life.
Children with low muscle tone often have trouble with gross motor skills such as: sitting, standing, and walking. They may also have problems in smaller areas such as: in their hands, in their core area (abdomen and back) and in their neck. A child with low muscle tone is very easily fatigued and it is harder for him or her to do things that we take for granted such as holding a pencil or climbing up stairs.
All children develop at different rates and the parents role is to help facilitate this process. Children go through a series of stages in their muscle development. These stages are affected by the child’s environment, family, school, health care provider and more.
Physical therapy may be the only way to increasing strength, endurance, and increasing postural control in children with low muscle tone. It is important to get your child moving. If they are sitting, get them up! Physical therapy can help decrease the muscle weakness that may be present. This will then enable them to do more activities that are considered age appropriate for their developmental age.
Signs/symptoms of low muscle tone:
* Delayed motor milestones(rolling/sitting/crawling/walking)
* Poor head control
* Difficulty sitting without support
* Slouched posture when sitting in a chair
* W sitting
* Has a hard time sitting on the floor with legs crossed and prefers to sit with legs straight out in front of them with hands behind their back on the floor for extra support
* Difficulty with handwriting
* Doesn’t like climbing on the jungle gym
* Fatigues/tires easily
* Trips frequently
* Hypermobile (flexible) joints
* Clumsy
Muscle tone is defined as the resistance of muscles to passive stretching. Everyone has muscle tone. It is the amount of force that helps you move about and keep your posture, whether you want to or not. Muscle tone cannot be altered; however you can help strengthen the muscles, improve postural control, motor planning, balance, coordination, and body awareness.
Children with low muscle tone (hypotonia) can be difficult to stimulate and engage in activities compared to other children. If your child is diagnosed with hypotonia, it does not mean that your child will never participate in sports or physical activity. It can be quite the opposite. You may even feel like you are working harder than the other parents, because you have to force your child to get involved.
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