#auty

Original drawing isn’t mine, just google to patterns

what if the world was made of pudding. GROW UP

View On WordPress

View On WordPress

Stimming is a form of self regulation done by children and adults with autism.  Now lets put that into plain English for a minute.  It is short for self stimulating behaviour. Stimming is what happens when kids with autism need to find a way to calm or to express their feelings without the ability to speak.  My son is 6 and his main stim is to jump and flap his hands.  He does this at various times.  When he gets overly excited or happy he will jump and flap.  He has no idea that this may look strange to other people and as he is encouraged to do it at home when he feels the need too it means that he is happy to express himself in this way.  Stims are nothing to be embarrassed about.  They are simply a coping mechanism.  As children develop into teenagers and then onto adults they can find additional ways to control their stims with things like stress balls and the newest craze of fidget cubes and spinners.  Some people have become quite adept at masking these stims in various ways whereas others have them in plain sight. Stims can be catagorised depending on how the person portrays them.   There are some common areas which can be seen as follows: Verbal stims are quite a common one and is often referred to as echolalia.  Echolalia is repeating sounds or phrases but usually these words or sounds or phrases have little or no meaning to the current context of conversation. Visual stims can relate to lights and the use of lights to stim.  This can be simply staring at lights or things like repetitive blinking onto staring at spinning objects like wheels. Tactile stims relate to the need to do things like scratching or rubbing skin or objects with their hands.  This can also be shown with the need to continuously use a piece of fabric or clothing to remain calm.   Auditory relates to sound and can be expressed by things like listening to the same song over and over, a noise on repeat, rewinding and repeating the same piece of music or words on a video for instance.  Vocal sounds are also often seen, tapping ears and clicking fingers would also be noticeable as this is another way of promoting sound.   Taste and smell relates to not just what is eaten but also the smell and taste of inanimate objects including people.  This can be simply smelling a person or licking them or even things like licking toys, surfaces etc.  Chewing also features within the area and these things can also be linked to a condition called Pica.  Pica is when a person eats and or consumes objects not food related.  This can be anything and a person or child with Pica needs to be observed closely to ensure they are not ingesting things that can cause serious harm.   proprioception relates to an inability to feel where the body is at the time or what the body is doing.  Everyone has proprioception on  a day to day basis as this is how we do things like driving.  It is our body doing tasks and routines without us really thinking about it.  With autism this can be different and as such people who struggle with proprioception will do activities such as rocking, stamping, pull different faces, contort their bodies unusually, swinging, jumping, pacing, walking on tip toes and spinning to name a few.   As you can see there are lots of different ways to stim and stimming is just a way to handle the current situation.  Some children need to stim to seek the sensory input that they are not naturally getting enough of and other times its to control the over input stimulation that they are getting in a specific situation or environment.  Either way it is a coping mechanism and a way for them to express themselves when they are not able to do any other way.  

View On WordPress

Me, two seconds ago