I wasn’t sure where else to post this. I guess I chose Chat for traffic but if it belongs anywhere else please point me in the right direction... I’ve NC.
DD7 has started what I think, after some research and talking to others with experience, is stimming. Since she was 4 she has gone through phases of clearing her throat repeatedly, once she starts she finds it difficult to stop and now she has started repeatedly flexing the muscles in her stomach for periods of time, giving a kind of violent hiccup effect. I’ve asked her why she thinks she does it and she says she doesn’t know, just feels like she needs to but isn’t in pain and I’ve left it like that and haven’t tried to stop her.
I understand this is a behaviour many people with ASD adopt but as far as we are aware she is NT with no obvious learning difficulty. She is thriving at school (when that was a thing) and has struggled with lockdown, not going to school and home learning. She’s found the whole experience very stressful as things have changed for us as a family hugely since March, with changes in working hours, childcare etc. I’ve done my best to make things as normal as possible and reassure her but I’m terrified this is stimming related to anxiety and poor MH. Of course, I’m beating myself up about how much better we could’ve handled everything already!
I guess my questions are:
- To anybody with experience, does This sound like stimming.
- is it something to do with anxiety. The timing is quite the coincidence. She has a younger sister (2) who has been particularly toddler-ish lately and has needed a lot of attention. (Again, putting this down to a symptom of the times!)
- What can I do to help her? Is it worth calling the GP for a chat, or the her school?
Many thanks in advance for any words of wisdom. She’s always been such a strong, confident character to the point of having to rein her in at times, I never thought I’d be fretting over her mental heath. It feels wretched.