involuntary movements in young child

[flyinghome]

Posting here for traffic. Does anyone know anything about involuntary movements by primary school children when stressed, not likely to be dystonia or tics, not linked to any LD/SN? When ds5 is on stage he often becomes very nervous and this shows with involuntary movements, jumping around and arm moving (and if very stressed, head moving too). It happens to a much lesser extent at other times. Doctors and teachers haven't seen anything like it. No one has mentioned a referral to anyone. DS is seen as quite bright and (when not stressed) very lively and "normal". I am not aware of any seizures. If he overheats in sleep he judders for a short time when he wakes. Thanks!

www.ums.ac.uk/umj083/083(1)022.pdf

Google "gross motor stereotypy" (I think this is how you spell it) and see if that rings any bells. It has autistic and non autistic forms.

Thank you. I have just skim read the guide and the one which most fits is the functional movement disorder but it doesn't take me much further! The common underlying causes haven't been found, and he is coming to end of year 1 and so presumably other issues would have been identified by now. Are you a primary care provider and if so who would you refer on to, or would you say wait and see? If anyone has personal experience of this it would be great to hear from you.

barbarianmum our posts crossed, and i have just googled as you suggested and found quite a lot of info posted by a John Hopkins medicine in the US, and it was reassuring, saying it was reasonably common (in the US, at least!), that it did not necessarily indicate other problems, that the best therapy is behavioural therapy which I think is most effective when a child is 7plus, the idea being to control triggers and minimise movements (eg to flex the hand instead). Drug therapy is not seen as effective. It said that research is active in the area. It was reassuring to read so thank you very much for posting the suggestion!

Ds2 has gross motor stereotypy. He's now 9 and the movements have toned down as he's become more self conscious about them. In public he now restricts them to his hands, keeping the full movements for when he's in private. I suspect they will never actually go away but then, now he has some control over them it doesn't really matter.

Should add that one thing that's really helped ds2 is dance. He will quite often translate the urge to move into a complicated tap routine or some street moves which again are a more socially acceptable way of releasing tension.

Interesting reading. I think my eldest has this, although not diagnosed, and it has gradually stopped as with age. Certainly, in infants, he would throw his arms out, and jump. He had a number of other sensory issues, although he is definitely not on the spectrum.

He does sometimes still need to bounce (he's 13 now), but he knows to go outside when he feels the urge, rather than break anything in the house. We have lost a lot of plates and glasses over the years.

Oh, just to say, we found physical activity was the best thing for him, particularly tennis as it involves lots of gross motor skills.

He has also just discovered he has a certain natural ability at long jump...

barbarian DS' classmates don't notice anymore and he doesn't get teased but I think he will also get more self conscious as he gets older, and that will probably be the time he will want help to control it more. He doesn't mind about how it looks at the moment, the only thing which scared him was the control thing, and I have reassured him. He loves sport and gym and dancing, but hasn't tried dancing classes yet, it is a good idea!

sittinginthesun I have always encouraged doing lots of sport partly because it was good for gross motor skills which have always been the thing with him. We have started going running together, my thinking being that I find it relaxing so he may too! No long jump as yet but who knows... !

Sound similar to Complex motor stereotypical movement disorder

On the DSM-5 there are criteria for diagnosis
What age is started when it’s occurring etc

Are you sure it's not tics? They can be quite big movements/dramatic to see.... tics are often brought on by stress.