What is your stim of choice?

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Wolf and I are very much into music, which tends to inherently include a metronome. When I rock, I generally listen to music; if I turn on music that Wolf likes, he will invariably start rocking. We also rock with matching rhythm; if I start rocking, he'll start, and if I stop, he stops. With endearing respect for The Lab Pet, I find the notion of beat without melody... disconcerting? Perhaps the opposite is true of you; do you listen to music?

No, I don't think he'll be keen on a metronome, BUT he often surprises me with respect to what I expect he'll like or not. So, since you introduce the notion of a digital metronome, and I'm working on a digital computer, the thought occurred to go look for digital metronome software, and I found many to try. And I will; you are kind to convey the notion; if he is keen on it, you get a cookie.

Yes, he's an insufferable gremlin. (I say lovingly.) He's in my office at work right now, and is running around with my obsidian sphere saying, "Grey Palantir Wolfie!" (Personally I think Wolf could defeat Sauron in a contest of will.) Just for fun, I asked him if he'd like a digital metronome, and now he's talking about "magical gnomes". If I had to guess, I'd say Wolf is trying to tell me that he thinks The Lab Pet dances to the music of magical gnomes?

Stimming + digital metronome + colour brainwave frequency stimulator. Have you ever experimented with your own brainwaves?


Perhaps The Lab Pet' stimming is a function of universal harmony.

Good fortune,

- Icarus's brainwaves are square at 4.77Hz...

drumming along to music (on the air, or in my head). I actually taught myself to drum, so I can 'fake it' if caught... have a drum set, even..

Hair chewing, by far. I do various other hair-related stims, some of which are so complicated I'd need to give diagrams....

I am also very fond of foot/leg shaking and hand-flapping.

When I was a very small boy, I had a favourite easy chair that I would sit in and "thump" my head against the backrest whilst singing a nonsense rhyme, until my parents started referring to it as my "thumping chair". I've never thumped with my face, though.

Some stimming is unacceptable because it disrupts the class. Your son needs to find a stim that is quiet and won't be loud or make any sounds.

Tapping a pencil, rocking in your chair, clicking your tongue, any stim that makes sounds or noise, or that would distract other people is unacceptable.


I twirled my hair and played with it, chewed on it, chewed on my pencil, played with my lip, played with my ear, playing with my fingers, etc. I did all that when I was a kid.

I have been told to stop the stims I be doing like rocking in my seat or tapping my pencil because it's disruptive.

I shake my legs.. Fairly standard, but what can I do

I've recently made a habit of hitting walls. With my fists. Full force. I try to improve my pain-resistance again (I could easily repress any pain when I was like 15 or so)

excuse me? i disagree. NT kids tap their pencils all the time, as well as tap their feet etc. this is only found to be acceptable, because it is the norm.

my son does this because it helps him to concentrate and relax. he is working on humming quieter, so as not to disrupt the class. he doesn't need another stim, he needs another environment that is more understanding as to why he does what he does...

By far for me it is hand flapping, and more than just that. My entire upper body can sometimes go into these weird "convulsions" (I have no better way to describe it, but i can stop it if i want, so it is just a stim). I also make these weird facial expressions, and sometimes i will just make weird and loud noises, though they aren't words. (Such as "ahh", "blah" "gah" and so on.)

I rock from side to side instead of front to back (like a combine on its leveling system). I also fiddle with pens. I like to pop the caps on and off repeatedly. That's a major one.

I rock back and forth a lot, play with the hair on the sides of my head, and do various things with my hands and feet. It varies from day to day, but I like to be moving at all times; I find it calming.
I also bite my nails and pick at the skin at the edges of the nails. Sometimes I chew on my lip too.

Last edited by Hedgehog on 04 Mar 2008, 2:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

Most of my stimming involves either my hands or my mouth, and I try to be non-disruptive. People get really hateful when adults are doing some consistent, audible activity in a classroom or work environment. I like to click my pen until it "sounds right" (i.e. equal in each ear...an OCD thing), but others hate that. I rub the tip of my eraser on the edges of my lips until it feels right.

I thwack my tongue back and forth between my molars almost constantly, sometimes in the rhythm of a song. When I was a kid I swished air/saliva around in my mouth...but people can hear/see that, so I've tried to stop. I'll sometimes bite my tongue or jab it into my premolars, and I also often run my tongue over the back of my incisors, especially the fake one.

As far as hands go, I rub my cuticles with the tips/edges of my other fingers. This is what I do when walking and talking, since the tongue thing interferes with talking. It's virtual undetectable. I also slide my fingernails under each other. I used to click my fingernails with each other, but this garnered stares, so I've mostly quit.

I do a lot of wiggling and whatnot too, but the above are the most frequent...the favorites, I suppose.

If I get really upset, meltdown upset, I jab my thumbnails into the palms of my hands and rake them. It actually bruises my nail beds, and they hurt for days.

Thumb such, nail bite, mainly index finger, flap hands when really stressed, jig leg, say stupid words, generally irritate people.

Jaw clamping and rocking back and forth on the soles of my feet when I stand up. Bobbing my knees up and down when I am sitting and fidding with hair.

Lets see. I...
Rock back and forth and let my head fall back and forth really hard. It feels great....

I spin in a circle, while walking in a circle (try not to do that one too often because I get dizzy) If that discription makes any sense...

And shake my hands and face

Rubbing the back of my head. My hair is very thin there now.

I also pull the collar of my shirt over my lips, during times of concentration.

Lab Pet should get the cookie.

To clarify, I do love music! But my digital metronome doesn't really serve as 'music' at all. Instead, like stimming, it's sort of a mental pacemaker. Lab work is very rythymic, which I love, and chemists sometimes use a metronome for titrations. I use the metronome to pace myself and it's very calming/comforting. Not like music, but like the ticking of a clock, or perhaps a heartbeat, is reassuring. I am meltdown prone and my metronome seems to regulate my anxiety and so I do not work too quickly or erratically. If Wolf is meltdown prone (?) then a digital metronome, with a visual pendulum might calm/relax him a bit. Again, mount it outside of his reach if that's a problem (heh heh). I like to take things apart too, but judiciously! I like to watch the pendulum and the beat is variable, which I like. Hypnotic....except I'm not hypnotizable - I was told I am likely perpetually in a hypnogogic state (by a psychologist). Yes, autistics have different brain waves. Icarus resonates at ~ 22.8 Hz? I think you could synchronize a metronome....fluorescent lights cycle at a seizure-inducing 55-60 HZ.
Harmonic divergence. Good Lab Pet. Cookie now?