Reducing "stims"

[shamu]

DS (aged 3 and a half) is stimming almost constantly at the moment. We've just moved house, so I'm sure it's partly in response to that but it had been escalating prior to moving. He mainly runs or walks around the room in the same repetitive way, speeding up and then slowing down whilst "mumbling"/jargoning to himself. Even when we're outside in the garden he has found a small area of patio that he circles almost continuously. I can barely get through to him at the moment and it's really upsetting me. He's developed some hand stims too (new) flicking his palm back and forth in front of his mouth while squeaking/screeching. I was hoping to start going to some local toddler groups (I have a one year old too) but I can't take him if he's going to do this for the hour and a half..... Our new borough don't have any OT provision at the moment so can't ask my OT. I try to distract him/provide activities for him but he's just not interested - he'll jump on the trampoline 4 times then go back to circling, or he'll put 2 pieces of the jigsaw together and start hand stimming..... He's also waking early - he was up from 3-6 last night so I'm exhausted..............

I'm feeling increasingly out of control.................

Shamu

[Guest Lya of the Nox]

is this him settling into his new enviroment?

i cant help sorry my dd doesnt have stims in this way

can u give him some tactile thing to change the stim?

<'>

[Stephanie]

Not sure how to go about reducing the stims without some kind of diversion.

 

My sons stims seem to come and go, they last 6 weeks then disappear and manifest into something else - at the minute he rubs his face and also does a lot of jargoning (mainly about his tamagotchi).

When he is really going for it, I try diversion ... eating, drinking, showing him something different.

 

I find he doesn't do any stims when we are out and is quite straight acting.

 

My SALT said as long as it doesn't hurt anyone and as he doesn't do it in public, let him do it as it is his way of coping, but I would like him to stop. I always worry they will turn into an OCD thing.

 

I will scan through my library of books and see if I can find any useful advice for you.

[MichelleW]

I think I've just become so used to J's stimming, that I hardly notice it myself anymore (unless he is flapping his hands in front of my face when I'm talking to someone, or rarely watching TV!) I never worried about him doing it in public as I believe that he should be accepted as he is. I have spoken to one grandparent who has forced her grandson to stop as she thought it was a habit. However, reading what asperger/autistic adults have written about the subject, it would appear to be neccesary, for them to relieve stress, tension and anxiety and to be able to concentrate. School have noticed J's increase in stimming, and apart from removing the source of the stress (i.e. school!) the only other option I could suggest was to give him a stress/fiddle ball of some sort. This seems to have worked a bit with J at school as it is a diversion which is "acceptable".

 

The only time I try to stop him, is if he is spinning an object which could hit someone.

[MichelleW]

I forgot to mention that J also used to stim when excited when he was 3-4 years old, but this eased off over the last few years. He also used to spin wheels, cds in their cases and sit in front of the washing machine watching it spin - these are also stims - i.e. stimulating the senses for pleasure. So if he has a need for visual stims, then maybe providing an "acceptable" visual stim may help. Ones that come to mind are old fashioned spinning tops that hum, gyroscopes, lava lamps etc. Executive desktop toys like balls that knock together or something like that.

[krystaltps]

C stims, almost constantly - usually spinning and jargoning (it's often hard to tell real speech from jargon as he has such a wide repetoire he can fit it to almost any occassion). It varies in intensity, usually determined by how stressed he is, sometimes he spins so much he is sick.

I try to ignore it, as it's one of his ways of coping. In fact, it's a great indicator to the rest of us as to how to handle him.

I know it doesn't sound like much in the way of advice, but I would just leave it - he maybe needs to do it just now as he's trying to cope with the house move. If it doesn't ease off after a month or so, perhaps try to do something about it then?

[Lynden]

Hiya K

 

I can sympathise - Logan has a couple new stims too which are a nightmare and I'm really wondering how we'll get them stopped. Normally I dont worry, and let him stim away to his hearts content but one lets him completely zone out, which is fine sometimes, but not all the time :-(

 

How was the move?

 

Lynne x

[shamu]

Thanks everyone <'>

I've tried things like sensory balls etc but he fiddles for 10 seconds, chews it a bit then casts it aside to go back to his pacing We thought about a lava lamp but I think he's still too little as he tends to pull things apart and chew them still. He tried to chew through the hospital fibre optic light thing last week!

Lynne - the move has been reasonable, but we have no therapy input apart from our EarlyBird at the moment..... Feeling a bit drained to be honest. Had my parents here for a week which was a great help but now I'm back to 5 solo days and it's really hard work. My email is playing up so I will try and PM you in the next couple of days

Thanks again - I think I'll try to leave him to it to some extent, it's just v distressing when it seems to be at the exclusion of everything else

Shamu

[aro]

Hi Shamu, your post sounds so familiar. My dd's (4.5yrs) include the speaking at the hand (guess this has several sensory elements) slapping her head, slapping her chest, rocking, and lately a sort of flicking/rubbing of her nose (the bridge gets quite red!) she puts her hands over her ears, this used to be just about noise then about anything she wasn't happy with but now seems to be habit or stim!

We can't seem to distract her and I've heard that if you prevent a stim another one pops up, I try to curtail them in public but as you said, fidget toys don't really work, usually she just flaps then as a stim

 

My dd also has complex partial ep. so it's hard to tell what is causing some behaviours too!

 

Now she is at school (they start early here) she seems to be getting a bit better at "playing" but still so obviously out of synch with her peers.

 

I'm guessing that you've been reading all the books you can such as "The out-of-synch child" etc?

 

A x

[rach04]

jord flaps his hands but we just ignore it. Its what makes him who he is. I did have to tell him once to stop it when we were sat on a bus and his flapping hands were hitting an old lady in front across the head

[lisa35]

My12 yr old (and yep is biggish lad) likes to spin in local supermarket-I reckon its the fluorescent lighting, quite funny when Im not stressed and watch others faces when he does it! His lates thing is noises and sudden, out of nowhere sings "every body dance now!" in an ace hi pitched voice!!!!!!

He does noises not only when stressed , but when incredibly happy

Lisa

[allsetuk]

my son aged 5 pops his finger in his mouth, and blows rasberrys or blows on his hands all day and all night, even at school ...he never has and doesnt sit for anything...there is not a moments rest, he is always moving , burying himself, making dens, hiding somewhere ...im finding him increasingly hard to settle for bed too

[LizK]

I think it so hard when they are stimming so much it interferes with their basic ability to communicate or acknowledge the world around them. Is the stimming purely sensory or is it anxiety related in part or is it just fun for him?

 

If it is sensory is he sensory seeking, looking for vestibular or proprioceptive input? Is he hypo to touch? Can you offer him other opportunities to get these inputs so he doesn't need to stim so much. Listened to an OT recently who said our kid's brains are starved of sensory input and it needs feeding several times a day (hence sensory diet term I guess!) and if it doesn't get fed they will actively seek it out just like you would if you were hungry. A friend has a preschooler who stims a lot get slocked away stimming and they found that on a week holiday when he could run around the beach and get plenty of proprioceptive and tactile feedback his stims reduced? If he's hypo to touch a weighted vest or tight wetsuit might help calm him. The Out of Sync child has fun book has some good ideas and the OT recommended Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration

 

If he's doing it partly for fun could you join in with him and try to get into his world rather than vice versa a la Earlybird or Intensive Interaction?

 

If he's doing it out of anxiety I think it is best to let him just get on with it and stim and try to make the rest of his day and his environment structured and ASD friendly and hopefully if he's a bit more relaxed might feel less need. Must be hard for him after moving and guess part of it is just time

 

Liz x