What exactly IS "hand flapping"?

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I hold my hands up in the air a lot, with elbows bent and arms pined to my sides. And move my hands around by rotating my wrists.

I used to do this in my youth.
But it goes out rather quickly mostly because handicrafts and drawing is sort of my outlet and obsession that time.


At rare times, if I'm too overwhelmed and less aware of myself I end up doing it.
My main stim involves walking for miles, and I prefer that over hand flapping.

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Jeez, I used to do pretty much what the girl in the video did--flapping hands like birds and jumping, although I mostly only did it when very excited/happy or very upset/scared. I try not to do it in public now, but sometimes I forget and flap a little before I think "Ooops! stop that" and put my hands behind my back. Now I find I do what I call "stealthy stims"--tapping my foot, moving my heel back and forth, or bouncing my knee under my desk, twisting my hair, rubbing my face, or wringing my hands. I can't wear makeup because I would just rub it off within the hour.

Yeah I definitely don't do that. But I am, as a few others said, fidgety. Really, really badly.

Extreme nail biting, legs always bouncing or foot tapping, paper shredding/balling up, I wiggle my first two fingers up and down on my right hand very fast, if there's anything, on any table within arms reach of where I'm sitting, even if it's not my house, I will pick it up and find a way to make an annoying sound with it. I am an annoying sound factory.

I didn't think I did it until I started reading stuff... and then I noticed I do in a subtle way, usually associated with clearing my mind or the subject so I can move on. Or, if I need to remember to STFU.

By the way, parents videotaping their autistic kids and showing the symptoms is a little creepy. If you ask me. This one isn't so bad, but putting their kids out there forever when they are at their worst... is not cool.