Another Stereotype?

Page 1 of 2 [ 32 posts ] Go to page 1, 2 Next

Previous topic | Next topic

KissOfMarmaladeSky
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 24 Aug 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 532

25 Aug 2010, 2:37 pm

I'm not even sure hand-flapping is part of anything aside from maybe hypotonia or hyper-extended joints.

CockneyRebel
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 116,798
Location: In my little Olympic World of peace and love

25 Aug 2010, 2:49 pm

I've always questioned the hand flapping thing.

_________________
The Family Enigma

Rynessa
Deinonychus

Joined: 1 Oct 2007
Age: 46
Gender: Female
Posts: 366

25 Aug 2010, 2:59 pm

Me, too. I have never seen an adult do it. On the other hand, almost all small children flap their hands when they get excited or even scared.

Willard
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Age: 65
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,647

25 Aug 2010, 3:11 pm

I do it with my keys when I'm out in public and stressing. click-click, click-click, click-click. Its not wild gesticulating, like a kid I knew in Junior High who was clearly a spectrumite, but its definitely a hand-flap, motivated by stress and anxiety, just like my rocking and swaying stims.

Marcia
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Age: 56
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,148

25 Aug 2010, 4:17 pm

My son is dxed AS and is very much a hand flapper. It is quite distinctive and is very different from typical "little children" flapping. He will be 9 at the end of this year and although his flapping hasn't reduced any, he is able to control it in certain situations and for short periods of time. I should add that this control is something that he himself chooses to do - I just let him flap.

I have observed a similar style of flapping in people I have seen out and about with carers, who seem to be more severely autistic and non-verbal.

@ the OP - what leads you to think it may be another stereotype?

lelia
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Age: 72
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,897
Location: Vancouver not BC, Washington not DC

25 Aug 2010, 5:00 pm

My 33 year old daughter hand flaps when she is excited. I have met many adult hand flappers.

willaful
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 788

25 Aug 2010, 8:27 pm

I've seen it in adults. My son seems to have grown out of it, though -- or perhaps is consciously controlling it, I don't know.

_________________
Sharing the spectrum with my awesome daughter.

angelbear
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,219

25 Aug 2010, 9:12 pm

My son is 5 and is diagnosed PDD_NOS/possible AS. He flaps when excited. It sort of goes in phases where he does it more often and then it goes away and then comes back. He actually does have hypotonia.

KissOfMarmaladeSky
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 24 Aug 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 532

29 Aug 2010, 2:08 pm

Marcia wrote:

The way they potray it in every Asperger's books I've read (about 5, I think), and they don't have any research to back it up. If this was all started by Rain Man (I've only seen a clip of it, yet it offended me), I would be ticked off. Oh...some people do it, but I, nor is the person with it in my sister's piano class, hand-flap. I shake my legs, though.

willaful
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 788

29 Aug 2010, 4:00 pm

The one that really bugs me is the "no sense of humor" stereotype.

_________________
Sharing the spectrum with my awesome daughter.

buryuntime
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 6 Dec 2008
Age: 86
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,662

29 Aug 2010, 4:07 pm

KissOfMarmaladeSky wrote:

Marcia wrote:

Because handflapping is a classic stim, and everyone stims. I've seen normal teenage girls handflap before, but it didn't look particularly autistic if that makes any sense.

MomsEyeView
Tufted Titmouse

Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 48

29 Aug 2010, 6:06 pm

willaful wrote:

The one that really bugs me is the "no sense of humor" stereotype.

Willaful - I'm with you. My Aspie son has a GREAT sense of humor! He loves to tell jokes, act out funny scenarios and make people laugh (not always appropriately, but at least it socializing!) He also loves plays on words, but I worked with him (all my kids, actually) each night at the dinner table by introducing and then discussing figures of speech so that may have helped that area.

_________________
Joanne - A mom of three great kids: 12 year old son with ADHD, 10 year old son with AS, 7 year old NT daughter.
Aspergers: A Mom's Eye View
http://asdhelp.wordpress.com/

spongy
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 17 Jul 2010
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,055
Location: Patiently waiting for the seventh wave

30 Aug 2010, 12:34 am

willaful wrote:

The one that really bugs me is the "no sense of humor" stereotype.

That one has been re-stated by Attwood as "not having a typical sense of humour" because apparently many of his patients were able to do jokes and so but they were related to their obsessions so he was unable to understand them until the patients explained it.

DW_a_mom
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 22 Feb 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,689
Location: Northern California

30 Aug 2010, 12:58 am

Rynessa wrote:

Me, too. I have never seen an adult do it. On the other hand, almost all small children flap their hands when they get excited or even scared.

It's different in NT children than AS children.

When we had the autistic day class on our elementary school campus, I saw a lot of the stereotypical hand flapping. My high functioning AS son has never done it, despite his severe hypo-mobility, so I really don't think that is the connection.

I think the listing as a trait comes from simple observation of autistics. Not everyone on the spectrum has every trait, and if you're higher on the spectrum you are probably going to have even fewer of the obvious stims.

_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).

Last edited by DW_a_mom on 30 Aug 2010, 1:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

DW_a_mom
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 22 Feb 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,689
Location: Northern California

30 Aug 2010, 1:04 am

spongy wrote:

willaful wrote:

The one that really bugs me is the "no sense of humor" stereotype.

That makes sense.

The issue my AS son runs into is that he doesn't find the same things funny as his middle school peers, and a lot of it has to do with his complete lack of knowledge of pop culture and slang. Most jokes play heavily on that stuff, so he doesn't get the joke. I'm sure his peers see him as mostly missing the punch lines, or "not having a sense of humor."

But it doesn't mean he isn't funny. If you make a joke using a subtle play on sophisticated vocabulary (dictionary words), he'll get it every time.

_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).

willaful
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 788

30 Aug 2010, 1:27 am

spongy wrote:

willaful wrote:

The one that really bugs me is the "no sense of humor" stereotype.

Yeah, I don't always get my son's humor. Like he thinks the names on the buttons of the toaster are just *hilarious*. But he loves jokes, especially puns, and is often very funny. I've never known as Aspie in real life who didn't have a great sense of humor. And you can see it in the people who post here, too. But in media, they're always presented as humorless.

_________________
Sharing the spectrum with my awesome daughter.

Page 1 of 2 [ 32 posts ] Go to page 1, 2 Next

Jump to:

Another Stereotype? Post Reply New Topic

Another Stereotype?