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TUWD
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23 Jan 2007, 1:14 pm

While I don't mind it, our therapist has said it would be best if my son could get past as much of hand flapping as possible. She says it will help him in social situations if doesn't do it as much.
I agree that it would help him appear more 'normal.' Broadening his ablility to verbally communicate has help out with 90% of it, it hasn't help with this piece. And due to the holidays and a couple of big wnter storms, he has only been to TX once in the last 7 weeks so we haven't had an opportunity to squeeze this one in with the therapist.

Situation:
He will flap his hands and make some gibberish sounds with a smile on face if he gets real excited in certain situations.

My question is this.
How can I help him stop this without making him feel like he is doing something wrong?
He is pretty sensitiive in so much as he gets his feelings hurt pretty easliy and I don't want to harm his self esteem at all, much less on a minor issue IMO, such as this.

Ideas? Thoughts?



chrishrfrd
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24 Jan 2007, 9:17 am

Hello tuwd,
I read your other post, welcome. I had this thought about your kids when I read the other post and now I've seen this one think I may be onto something for you.
Some kids with AS tend to be slightly uncoordinated. I have a feeling the hand flapping thing may be his unfamiliarity with his body. Test him. Ask him to look away towards somewhere else and with one hand see if he can touch his fingers on an outstretched hand without looking where his other hand is. The probability is that he won't actually touch his finger or hand. This is because some kids are so in their mind that they know they have hands etc but don't actually realise that their physical and mental beings are connected.
To rectify this show him his bicepts and triceps. Get him to check them out and do it in such a way that he is being validated for his learning. Make a game of this and I have a strong feeling this could help. Please let me know if I am on the right path. I will wonder.

Wrong Planet is a great place to come....Welcome again.....Chris.



CelticGoddess
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24 Jan 2007, 2:13 pm

is he seeing an O/T by chance? I'm thinking along the lines of what Chris has mentioned. There's actually 7 senses in the body and one of them is the awareness of where our body is in space. I find that that particular sense is usuallly not functioning correctly in AS kids. Out of the seven senses, 5 of them we're working properly for my son. He sees an O/T regularly and it's definitely helping with his symptoms.



TUWD
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24 Jan 2007, 3:19 pm

Thanks to you both.

The OT actually mentioned his issues with where he is space and worked with him quite a bit on that. While he was able to stop OT after 6 months, it was said that it is something he may have return to at different times as he developes.

I'll try the touching the hand and tricep/bicep ideas and see how he does with that.

Thanks again!



quita
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27 Jan 2007, 3:21 am

Hi my name is Laquita I have a 5 year old son who does the same thing.Except he makes loud noises.my son has only recently been diagnosed with aspergers so I havent had a chance to talk to an o/t yet we are in the progress of finding him one.But the lady who came out and tested andrew said they have these vibrating balls that you put in your hands and it is suppose to help with the hand flapping, because it is a sensory thing. It is suppose to give them enough stimilation to where they dont need to flap. So even if you dont have an o/t maybe you could look it up on the internet you may be able to find some there.Hope this helps :D



cron