Need some help with a stim...

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Hi,

I'm looking for some advice by people who do this particular stim (this is why I posted here and not in the parents forum):

My son does one main stim - when he's excited visually by something, he makes an almost "elephant blowing his trunk" noise by blowing air thru his lips and usually goes up on his tippie-toes and wiggles his arms/wrists a little. When he was 2 years he never did this, he is now 2 years 11 months and his stim keeps increasing in frequency. He now does this stim while watching movies, looking at his toy trains/cars, pictures on the wall or anything else he finds visually appealing.

If you have done this kind of stim when you were a toddler or do it now - what function does it serve? I'm concerned that these might be small seizures rather than an actual stim.

I'm not trying to get him to stop (unless of course they are seizures), I'm just trying to understand it. My son is non-verbal (he spoke a few words at 13-15 months then regressed and has yet to speak another word), no real eye contact, and limited or skewed joint-attention and in his "own world." Yet, he knows both myself and mommy are there - he runs to mommy, plays with mommy in his way, cries when she leaves and pretty much ignores me. He moves well, strong, and seems pretty smart - his therapist says he learns quickly, and his main issues seem to be more deficits in communication/socialization rather than cognitive related.

Thanks for any replies.

If you're a neurotypical person then it may be hard for you to understand/comprehend what stimming is and why your son does it. The best way I can describe it is, it's a form of biofeedback. It's an integral part of my thinking process. It help maintains rhythm, synchronization and choreography in my thinking process. If I don't do it. I tend to go through withdrawals and it just drive me crazy. My parents and school teacher hated me for doing it and would discipline me for it. But I had to do it or I would go stir crazy.

Thank you for the reply LupaLuna.

Sorry I haven't responded sooner, but I've been a little busy with work. What you said makes sense, when we're working on our therapy activities, the more my son stims the better/quicker his responses seem to be. It seems as if his stimming helps him think clearer. I'm just having a little trouble understanding why it's increased, now it's at the point when sometimes it's almost continuous, and at other times he doesn't do it. I'm thinking that as he is becoming more aware of his surroundings there is a lot more information for him to take in, and this leads to more stimming.