To think that stimming (especially destructive or very intense) is potentially not helpful or even harmful in the long run?

Thankyou for that. One of the GS is a spinner among other things so I will try calming that or redirecting because I have been wondering as it does seem to make him go some after! I have been letting him spin a bit in the kitchen Also he jumps all over the settee and then spins off rather wildly! No amount of telling him stops him day in day out and it can be dangerous so I'm thinking a distraction technique is needed there similarly?

Don't mean to be hijacking the thread.

Who says? You’re a psych now are you?🤣 Pacing is soothing for my son and always will be. His OCD which is being treated with therapy and medication is completely separate and different to his stimming .

The GP might have wanted information from a teacher to support a referral for assessment, but they didn’t need this to “confirm a diagnosis” - because GPs don’t diagnose ADHD. Why wouldn’t the teacher provide the requested information?

If you found telling him to stim in private so he didn’t “annoy” you so effective that his stims disappeared, he became verbal, and he started playing with others and making friends, with your terribly caring interventions making such a difference that a paediatrician genuinely said they “could not tell he was autistic”…you’ve either found a miracle ‘cure’ (not a thing) and should get in touch with some medical journals, caused intense masking which is likely to cause him a ton of issues as he gets older, or he wasn’t autistic at all in the first place.

Either way, what you’ve described isn’t “the most severe form of autism” is it? (Not that he could have that anyway, as it isn’t a thing).

You don’t stop OCD by telling children to stop pacing. Quite the opposite, if you tell a child with ocd who paces to stop pacing- you make it worse!

No, they don't, nor do teachers 'sign it off'. I've not heard professionals use the term 'most severe form of autism' either, what is that @Muffinmam ? Have you reversed it now that your child is verbal and doesn't engage in repetitive behaviour? Communication and repetitive behaviour is part of the diagnostic criteria. Have you cured him autism or reduced him from being the 'most severe form'. If so, have you contacted medical professionals about this? I'm sure there will be many interested in your method used to cure autism.

Ok, but have you considered that chronic anxiety and threat-load increase OCD risk? Or that masking and suppression increase anxiety? And that suppression is more plausibly a risk factor than stimming?

I’m very sure you don’t understand but I think you have good intentions. It’s very difficult to explain over a Mumsnet post. Have you heard of Temple Grandin? She is a professor of science in America, and a very famous autism advocate as she was one of the first individuals to publicly share her experience of autism. There is a film about her life which covers these topics in detail. I think you would find it really interesting.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

That was literally my first thought when I read this post! “Oh people on a REDDIT thread said this? It must be true!

FWIW my son’s stimming has changed over the years as he’s grown physically and emotionally.

"I just feel like encouraging children to behave in intensive repetitive behaviours is not going to be good for their brain."

Firstly, this is just your feeling, it's not based on anything at all that's objective. Secondly, in general parents don't encourage stimming, and ignoring it is not to encourage it. Thirdly, the stimming behaviour originates from the child, it isn't being imposed on their brain, it is part of their make up. People have clearly described how being forced or required to mask their stimming causes them issues, which is the total opposite of your "feeling" about this.

I think you have some specific issues with how the children or adults that you know with autism are being parented or cared for, and you personally find stimming to be something that upsets you. That's my feeling about this.

Suppressing non-harmful autistic regulation in favour of cognitive “skills” doesn’t eliminate dysregulation, it postpones and internalises it. The long-term risks of that are VERY well documented.

You can teach, emotional literacy, planning, exits, boundaries, breathing, grounding etc which can be useful, but none of them discharge sensory load the way a stim does in real time. Replacing a reflexive nervous system response with a conscious override is masking, which keeps a nervous system in a state of unresolved stress.

They can’t help it !!!! To order a child who can’t help something to stop causes huge psychological damage.

Do you have this view about limping?

"I just feel like encouraging children to behave in intensive repetitive behaviours is not going to be good for their brain"

Is this just your feeling though? Where's the evidence for this actually being bad?

Backed by reddit?

I personally prefer to get my information from YouTube.

The OTs that i spoke to in regards what to say to parents said that the only one they say to reduce in children is spinning as it stimulates rather than regulates and to try to redirect towards rocking or have it as a very controlled spin. Other than that allow the child to do what they need to do to regulate their sensory systems.

Yes, my adult son has his happy noise. When he stops making it it's the first sign I have that he is feeling unwell or anxious.

Do you have any evidence these things create a negative cycle? At the moment this just seems like anecdote rather than research

Backed up by several Reddit threads 🤣 Catch yourself on OP!

I have met a couple of parents whose children have autism and I have wondered when they have asked them to calm down why they are stopping them stimming and this has been in their own homes. I don't understand why they ask them to calm down. And both these parents are highly educated. Other parents I have been in contact just seen it as part of autism. So I have privately questioned whether they are right to say calm down.
Personally I feel better to be natural and let a person's nervous system function in its own way. I feel blocking things makes a pipe burst further down the line.
I'd never stop anyone stimming to fit in with a perception of conformity unless they were going to hit someone or something in the vicinity like in a shop.
People obviously stim for a reason. I would personally compare stopping stimming similar to when people used to try and get left handed people to write with their right hand.

You're not talking about autistic stimming, then. You're talking about OCD.

• Autistic stimming stimming does not cause OCD
• Allowing stimming does not increase OCD
• OCD is driven by intrusive thoughts and threat reduction, not sensory regulation.

Sure, they can be co-morbid or exist in isolation, and a clinician would need to assess what the route cause of the repetive movement is, and what purpose it serves, before decreeing it "harmless" or "problematic".

I can no more stop my severely autistic non verbal DS from stimming than I could part the seas. He gets plenty of looks and stares from people like you, you get used to it. It's in every noise, every movement, every second. If he's not hurting himself or anyone else then happy days, he has no sense of where he is in space, bouncing, jumping, stomping wiggling his arms are the way his brain is compensating for that, without it, he has inadequate vestibular input. It's quite clever really, very interesting to research if you wish to educate yourself.
Imagine you're in a car going backwards with a blindfold on, four different songs playing at in your ears at once. That's how he feels if he doesn't stim, in a crude way it's similar to how a blind person's other senses compensate. Why would you want to stop that? Would you prefer his meltdown? It involves headbanging, concussion, biting himself down to the bone, unbelievable screaming, serious violence. I know which I prefer.
There can be harmful or antisocial stims, which require redirection, this requires work, and effort I suspect you have no idea about. I won't go into them as I expect that will reinforce your negative stereotype, but please understand it's not as simple as just stopping them, especially if coinciding with a learning disability.