First Stims

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I'm curious as to what your or your child's first stims were.

Remember that some listed on the poll could be defined as another type of stimulation. This depends on why the stim is done.

My son did a cross of two, which he has refined into just one thing.

He used to wiggle his fingers/rub his fingers together on his tongue and at his lips. Now if it's fingers, it's above his head, not at or in his mouth.

I don't really know. I wasn't thinking he was autistic when he was an infant so he did stuff that I thought was normal. He flapped one hand off to one side and would look back at it (he didn't do it in front of his eyes) and he head-banged (happily). He stared at fans and spinny things. He ate stuff for a long time. He did all of that around the same time in his early toddler years.

We didn't consider autism until he was 2 1/2.

My daughter loved to play with the t.v wires. She also walked on her toes. She flapped her arms watching the ceiling fan. She only skipped one milestone. She never pointed to an object. She is 30 months an barely speaks.

We didn't know until my son was 9 that he had AS but I will never forget how he would stare at the light that sat between the chairs in our living room - he also LOVED to hold light bulbs- we let him if he was sitting on our lap. He never tried to put it in his mouth he just wanted to hold it. He would be in 7th heaven when holding a lightbulb - he would say "Itebulb, itebulb" When we went into a really large home improvement store with the big flourescent lights he would always look to the ceiling and point out which lights were not working. Lights are no longer a fascination now he just hand flaps when excited.

It started off as rubbing. He would spit on his finger and then rub his face by his eye over and over until it was raw.

Now he has progressed to picking at his skin in his forearm and ankle until he has these little sores.

I desperatly wish he would rock or hand flap instead. At least I wouldn't have to worry about that getting infected. Luckily he only does it when he is sick or stressed.

My daughter started VERY early with needing to rub her feet on things. I'm talking weeks old. She's four and still does it.

I have HFA and my first and only stim [i] as an infant/baby[b] was hand flapping. Nothing else.

My son is also HFA. At one point he twirled, but not for long.
His first "stims" more like repetative games: putting things into plastic bags or socks, behind radiators, in the freezer.
Also number repetitions/questions asked again and again. These actions soothed him and pleased him, but I don't know if they really qualify as stims!
And one point he jumped up and down and flapped his hands when he was happy, but I wouldn't call it a stim - more just expressing that he was happy.