Stimming?

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Hello

Quick refresher - Millie is 14yo, and in the process of being assessed for AS.

I've been reading around this forum and have come across the term "stimming", but am not sure what it is...

Millie does things like flicks her finger nails, tugs her clothes, makes little noises.

Is this stimming? What do others do? I'm asking because I had never noticed these little quirks but others did.

Thanks

N

Yep could be.

My son rocks. He also pinches his hair between his first 2 fingers, and does the same with fringe on his blanket. He also chews his tongue but I think that is more to concentrate.

These could well be stims. Do they increase in situations of stress or when she is trying to concentrate? Many stims do, and that is one way of telling between a stim (done for self calming) and just a bad habit.

Anything that makes noise can be an issue in the classroom; you may want to help her redirect those into something she will find equally comforting without imposing on those around her.

I still pace and shake my hands, my wife and daughter rock and my wife tries not to flap, but we all still spin, more my daughters and wife than me though etc etc.

My son who is 20 rocks all the time. He also cracks his knuckles. I always know when he is getting agitated, anxious or stressed because his rocking becomes quite frantic and he will even be doing it while he is standing up.

He rocked himself out of his cot at 6 months old, and has been through 3 rocking chairs!! And what a mission to make him give up the chairs - particularly the two old PINK rocking chairs (lazyboys) that belonged to my nana and her twin sister (they are now deceased). He hangs on to them even though they are so grotty and the springs have bottomed out on one.

Somehow I have to find another chair that he will like but once he is attached to something it is very difficult to detach him from it. I still have his huckery old cuddly from when he was a baby!!

Cool, the whole family on the spectrum? That's neat to hear, as I figure my son would most likely end up with a lady on the spectrum, or I kinda hope he does, 'cause I suspect a girl on the spectrum would be happier with him than an NT girl. I wonder if my leg shaking is stimming? Been doing that all my life and my mom hates it, always tells me to stop, LOL.

We were told not to bother our son about it and to leave him alone, not call attention to it His best friend sometimes would mimic him when they were younger, and his mother would get a little upset with him, but our son didn’t notice at all. But in the end, now at the age of 13, he has very little stimming if any anymore. Although he has peculiar mannerisms. Do you remember Ed Sullivan? The way he’d cradle his head in his hand, with the other at his elbow? My son does that, though he’s never seen Ed Sullivan. It just gives him character, LOL