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

The way you describe your child does not sound like autism at its most severe (and there is no such thing as the most severe form of autism). Likewise, as a PP said, a GP isn’t involved in an ADHD assessment.

Self injurious stims can produce endorphins, which can relieve distress and calm the individual.

Are you secretly just concerned with the embarrassing, attention drawing ones op?

This is a really interesting point. 3 out of 4 of my girls stim. Even still at 10. Only when excited (twist hands at wrist furiously) or playing. None of them have any additional needs or diagnosis. I myself constantly twirl hair all day every day and have done all my life.

I have often wondered for my second daughter if it was learned behaviour as my first daughter did this and they were very close in age. It's something I've always wondered. My third daughter flaps but at 7 has pretty much grown out of it.

Who decides what is ‘helpful stimming’ or ‘unhelpful stimming’? Is it you, OP? You might not enjoy the sound of my child bouncing up and down the hallway hundreds of times a day but nobody in our house cares,

Well, typically if I'm visibly stimming it's either that or slowly build towards a meltdown. Often in public. I'd rather not be screaming, crying and hitting myself at the bus stop, so a little rocking back and forth as I stand and wait seems like a pretty good trade-off personally. Since I was diagnosed in my teens and stopped suppressing my urge to stim, I've barely had any meltdowns at all when I used to melt down regularly. I can safely say that stimming has massively improved my wellbeing by preventing such frequent meltdowns, which left me exhausted and ashamed.

In general, I barely notice my own stimming. It's mostly things like knitting (a repetitive hand motion), chewing gum, jiggling my knee, or humming to help me focus (if I'm alone). It's just a background element of my life. Obviously self-injurious stims are harmful both long-term and short-term and should always be redirected where possible, but hand flapping or pacing can be wonderfully regulating. If I suppressed my stims the way I used to, my ability to go out and about, travel, work, and socialise would be vastly curtailed.

I can only speak for ADHD stimming, but who cares if you repeat song lyrics, twiddle hair/fingers or do swimmers feet, in the comfort of your own home. You aren’t hurting anyone, if OP is talking about stimming being something to be ashamed of in public, I can’t see how that would be helpful. It doesn’t bother me if someone is regulating in a way I don’t understand.

If you want to reply you need to click ‘quote’ on the post you want to reply to.

Yea this. You're being very vague.

Maybe you could just let people decide for themselves based on the innumerable different nuances and circumstances that will apply to their own child (or themselves) rather than taking it upon yourself to inform them what you have decided based on ‘several Reddit threads’.

Could you give some concrete example of what you consider non-helpful stimming, and why you think it intensely repetitive behaviour might cause escalation to harmful acts?

Glad you got it sorted. We've tried various bracelets and chew toys, but nothing compares to the real thing apparently

@Muffinmam

GPs don’t diagnose ADHD though?

Some stimming, when it's violent or highly disruptive, can be redirected to something less obvious or inappropriate. That's a good thing to do.

Other stimming can be really helpful in keeping an autistic person from a meltdown.

I completely agree with you.

I have a child with the most severe form of autism, GDD and suspected ADHD (GP wanted a sign off from a teacher to confirm his diagnosis).

When my child was a toddler he would suddenly rock so violently that I would get injured. I put a stop to that along with the flappy hands, vocal stimming and walking on tippy toes.

I also found that when he was encouraged to do things like spinning (by his speech therapist) he would go absolutely feral. I told her not to do that because he would get himself into a situation where he wouldn’t stop. She argued that autistic kids like it. So I sat back and let her deal with him. It didn’t calm his nervous system - it put him into a state where his behaviour continued to escalate until the point he would physically injure himself.

At home he would need more and more to satisfy his sensory needs and would run full force into furniture.

My concern was all of his behaviours were preventing him from making friendships as well as preventing him from interacting with the world. His Paediatrician told me that we need to get him out of his world before the age of 9-10. So that’s what I focused on.

I was so successful in stopping his behaviours that new Paediatricians told me they could not tell he was autistic.

He talks (previously he was non verbal), he’s made friendships and he plays with others.

I absolutely refused to lean in to his behaviours. I told him if he felt it necessary to carry on then he should go up to his room and do in private and that he shouldn’t annoy me.

I support him. I’ve given up my amazing career for him. I refused to be home all day with a kid that was non-verbal, who groaned, moaned, yeeped, rocked, self harmed (he used to hit himself in the head), who flapped his arms like a bird and walked around on his toes.

I'm not sure I understand your issue with stimming, OP. Just to clarify, are you saying that hand flapping or knee jigging is harmful in the long-term? If so, what is the exact harm?

Well my instinct is to stim, not sure why your instinct trumps mine.

Life skills have fuck all to do with it.

Can you explain why you think, eg, fidget toys (a form of stimming) are bad?

But that’s totally separate and irrelevant to your OP.

My DGd did that we got a soft bracelet that solved the problem it was made from plaited cloth.

Well this is a cracker isn’t it?

I agree . Adult asd son 42 has stopped himself tapping ect because he felt it drew attention which he didn't want .

Could we perhaps stop comparing autistic children to distressed animals in unsuitable confinement?