Interesting observation today....

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A young man who was pretty obviously disabled by his autism came through my grocery line the other day. He was probably early 20s, African-American, and his mother was holding his left hand. He was holding his right hand near his face and -- what I thought -- was rubbing the little finger and thumb of his right hand together rhythmically. When I looked closer, I realized that he had a very small pebble or bean -- smaller than a lentil -- in between and was actually rolling it around between those two fingers. He didn't even seem to be aware that he was doing it. But he must have been aware on some level, because I tried to do that later and it's HARD to keep from dropping the pea, plus my fingers started feeling crampy pretty quickly. I wish my stims were that unobtrusive. You can see me 50 yards away.

god bless his mother, who is in it for the long haul. prayers for him.

I stim like that with a lanyard clipped to my belt loop rubbing the end of it like he was with the pebble. it helps a lot in toning down my other stims. and a lot of the time i have it up to my face near my ear (i'm really short).