If Your Child Has Autism or Apraxia, You’ve Probably Seen Them Do This
When children want to move, and their body reacts slowly, like it’s buffering. This isn’t laziness; it’s signal travel. Picture your child reaching to tap their iPad. The brain has to send a message from the brain down the spine to the arm to the finger. That could be two to three feet. The body has different ways to send messages.
Why the Nervous System Doesn’t Use Diffusion
One way is chemical signaling, which is drifting through tissues called diffusion.
Diffusion is like if you put a drop of dye in water and don’t stir it, it slowly spreads. If the brain tried to send the tap the iPad message using diffusion, it would take, I don’t know, a year.
So the nervous system uses electricity instead. So fast electrical bursts called action potentials. That’s the body’s high-speed Internet. So slow reaction time isn’t not paying attention. It may be slower electrical communication.
What Slow Reaction Time Can Look Like in Apraxia
They know what they want to do, but the body responds like it has a lag. Like the brain clicked go. And the body loaded and loaded.
Here’s what might be happening.
The brain has to send messages over long distances from the brain to the spine, the arm, the finger, and it has to be fast. We can’t wait for chemicals to float there. That would take too long. So the nervous system uses electricity, action potentials.
Why a Neuron Isn’t Like a Copper Wire
Living Tissue Leaks Electricity
A nerve is not like a copper wire. A phone charger cable is made of copper. Super easy for electricity to travel through. But a neuron is made up of living jelly and stuff, and it leaks. So if the brain sent one tiny electrical spark, it would fade out before reaching the muscles.
How the Signal Keeps Going
Instead of sending one spark down the whole nerve, the nerve does something genius. It restarts the signal again and again and again, all the way down the axon. It’s like passing a flame down a line of candles. Each candle lights the next one. That’s how the message reaches the body. So apraxia isn’t won’t. It can be. The signal is hard to carry.
Why Myelin Matters
Myelin is why some nervous systems feel fast, and others feel like they’re buffering. Neurons send messages using electrical spikes. But here’s the problem. A nerve is like a copper wire. It’s a living tissue, and electricity can leak out. So the signal can slow down or fade. Myelin is like wrapping electrical tape around a wire. Not once, but over and over and over. That thick wrapping makes the signal travel better.
Two Things Myelin Does
Myelin does two huge things.
- It blocks leaks so the electrical message doesn’t escape. That’s like plugging holes in a hose.
- it makes the nerve respond faster. Less electrical storage, more snap.
So the signal can change quickly and move quickly, so the message goes further and faster. When your child’s body is slow to respond, it may not be won’t. It may be. The wiring needs better insulation.
Why Nerves Can’t Be Completely Wrapped in Myelin
The nervous system has to send a signal up to several feet through the body. And here’s the wild part. Nature built boosters for those signals. Myelin is like electrical tape. It keeps signals fast.
So you’d think, why not wrap the whole nerve completely in myelin? But you can’t, because nerves need special doors called voltage-gated channels. These doors let ions move in and out to create the spike. If everything was wrapped, there’d be nowhere for the doors to work.
What Are Nodes of Ranvier?
So nature used a genius design. It wraps the nerve, but leaves these tiny little gaps. Those gaps are called nodes of Ranvier.
Think of them like charging stations or relay towers. At each node, the signal gets restarted, boosted, and sent forward again so it doesn’t fade out before reaching the hand, the foot, the mouth, wherever it’s going. So if signals aren’t boosting cleanly or fast enough, movement, planning, reaction time, and speech motor control can feel harder. This is about nervous system wiring, not your child’s effort.
Signals Jump from Booster to Booster
Here’s the genius part. The signal travels fast under the myelin. Then at each node, it gets a boost and launches again. That jumping from booster to booster is called salutatory conduction. It doesn’t teleport. It’s more like strong Wifi coverage and extenders, keeping the connection powerful. So reaction time isn’t just behavior.
It can be signal speed and boosting.
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