Could My Child Have
Low Muscle Tone?...

...Leslie Dobkins, OTR/L, SIPT-C, Occupational Therapist

What is low muscle tone? Muscle tone refers to the muscle's ability to respond rapidly to a stimulus; with low muscle tone the response is slower, decreased in intensity, and shorter lived. Low muscle tone is most frequently identified with neurological traumas such as a brain injury or cerebral vascular accident or with genetic disorders such as Down's Syndrome or congenital myotonic dystrophy. Under those circumstances the low muscle tone is usually dramatic and recognizable to a lay person.

If you see a child that cannot seem to sit upright and still in their seat at the dinner table or at a desk, would you think of low muscle tone? If you had a child who whined about going shopping or standing in line for the movies, would this come to mind?

Often mild low muscle tone goes unrecognized by the untrained eye. What most people would guess is that the child is hyperactive, lazy or just plain high maintenance. However, for many kids there is a reason they behave in such an odd and sometimes annoying way...mild low muscle tone.

An occupational therapist who treats children would usually pick up on this, but unless they are seen by one of these professionals for another reason (e.g. poor handwriting, poor balance, etc) a child may never get identified as having this problem. Often they grow up and have children with similar behaviors and it is assumed that this is just how kids in that family are.

What other problems might you see with mild low muscle tone? Poor posture, poor body awareness, poor coordination, poor listening skills, speech difficulties, and self-feeding difficulties (e.g. overstuffing the mouth with food) often go hand in hand with low muscle tone. So can low muscle tone be cured? Yes and no. Muscle tone is based on a neurological preset. However, with guided exercise and intervention the muscles can be trained to respond like a muscle with normal tone; the caveat being that a maintenance program will need to be in place to keep up this state of responsiveness. The good news is that most maintenance programs can include many common activities that most people enjoy anyway.

How low is too low and in need of intervention? Many kids can do things like dance and sports to counteract their low muscle tone and never have the need to see an Occupational Therapist. Kids who cannot be coaxed into these activities or who have related problems (e.g. poor handwriting, behavioral difficulties, coordination problems, etc.) would benefit from being evaluated by a one of these professionals.