From Phoebe Caldwell, Settle, North Yorkshire, UK
You report that beeping shoes boost walking ability in people with Parkinson’s disease. Around 40 years ago, I was working with people on the autistic spectrum, one feature of which can be difficulty feeling the ground you walk on. When a colleague of my husband’s got Parkinson’s disease and was having difficulty walking, I suspected that he wasn’t getting enough feedback telling him when his feet touched the ground (27 January, p 14).
It sounds absurd, but I gave him a couple of teddy bear squeakers to put in the soles of his shoes. He was immediately able to walk across the room, an improvement he maintained, until, being a scientist, he constructed a more sophisticated version.
