Does hand flapping ever NOT mean autism?

[whateverhappenedtobabyjane]

Do NT children flap their hands in excitement?

Depends a lot on the age, I think. Handflapping at 1yo is quite common among NT kids, quite uncommon by 6yo.

DD used to do it a lot. When she was about 2, we spent an afternoon watching some old cine films, in which I was featured at a young age doint exactly the same!

My 2.5 yo DD does it with excitement - as in she puts her arms out straight and kind of makes star signs with them, while out the same time often putting her legs our straight.
IT never occured to me that this was a potential indicator for anything. Like purpleturtle apparently I also did it as a child.

I still do it! Have learnt to control it but they do slip out sometimes. My dh thinks it is hilarious and I have noticed my dd doing it sometimes. My dad does it too. My family nickname was butterfly.

I think a lot of toddlers flap and it means nothing. It is when it continues, or when it is done with a kind of intensity that it may be an indicator.

It is hard to explain but I will try.

any child will get excited and flap as part of that excitement. DS2 would flap because he had to. It would often be linked to his excitement but it was stimulating on its own. And it would be something he couldn't control or easily stop if we wanted him too.

Does that make any sense?

It is why no one symptom confirms autism. It is all about clusters of baehaviours etc

Flapping can also be related to sensory processing disorder, which can be linked to autism but isn't always.

Is the star-sign thing what people mean by flapping, though? Mine used to do the star signs when they were babies and they knew food was coming.

Ds is on the spectrum and never hand flapped.

DD1 is one of the most NT children you could imagine and hand flapped until she was about 3. She often did it when she was hungry as this made her somewhat jittery. She has always been constantly on the go and I think ehen she was little she just couldn't control her blood sugar level.

So, it can be a sign but certainly not on its own. I would only worry if other traits are present and it continues into the school years. Also, as Pagwatch says, if the child needs to do it and it is pervasive.

Three of my children handflap and none of them are autistic at all.

Ds did it until he was old enough to realise it was then he stopped but occasional,y when he's playing on the computer and gets excited I still catch him doing it at 14!
dd1 never did.
Dd2 is 7 and has always done it when she gets excited, she's doing it a lot less as she gets older.
Dd3 is only 8m and she has started doing it! She's very sociable like her sisters and I have no reason to suspect she will be on the spectrum.

My sil is a paediatric ot and she says it's not really common but not that unusual either.

My DD is 9 and will hand-flap and bounce around when she's excited. She's done it for years and is about as NT a child as I've ever seen.

DS is almost 3 and flaps quite a lot when he's excited. He's given me no indication that he might be on the spectrum (well, not so far anyway.)

Got a 4 year old flapper here, oh, yes and a 2 year old younger flapper sibling. The 4 year old maybe doesn't do it as often as he used to but is still very much at it . The 2 year old is maybe not as flappy as the 4 year old used to be, but a flapper nonetheless. Neither are on the spectrum.. or at least I don't think so!
When they were 3 and 1 we got lots of double flapping times- very amusing!

DS1 is autistic and very ocassionally flaps when he is nervous or stressed.
DS2 is nearly 3 and totally NT, he flaps a lot more often and does it when he is excited!

I don't think that it means anything,some people use their hands to express themselves. There are lots of perfectly normal adults who never keep them still.

My almost 10 year old does it. He is nt and looks like a penguin when ge flaps with excitement.

Hello
Sorry for the long post but I’d really like some advice on my DD . She is currently 15 months . She has started walking at 12 and currently she has 15 words under her belt . She smiles at people and wave at them . She also imitates what she sees on tv and the peak aboo game . When she is out she loves kicked her ball and run on the sand and grass . On a social level she likes other kids and follow simple commands such as “ no and stop “ . She does a bit of toe walking and still a bit of stimming like twirling wrists and flicking her fingers if tired or excited , sometimes crossing her fingers too . I am a first time mum and very anxious . I’d like to know if there is anything I need to address or if it is completely normal for her age . Is the twirling still normal for her age ?
Many many thanks again ☺️

@Vittoria123 my son does both of these - walking on toes occasionally and stims when excited.
In every other way he's okay so I'm just playing the wait and see card. I've been to docs and HV and they've all said he seems fine, nursery aren't concerned so I feel like I need to wait it out a bit longer.
How's your little ones understanding? I think that's a big one.
I should also add my son is 2.4 so much older than yours, he has twirled his arms and feet since 10 months and then from 12 months went more into flapping, then 18 months completely stopped and has now recently started again🤷‍♀️
Yours is so young, it could just stop.
I believe if it's a lone concern then it should be okay, but I feel exactly the same as you😊

@Vittoria123 also I forgot to mention crossing the fingers!! My son started this about the same age as your daughter and I've never come across anyone else that has experienced that.
He still does it now and again now. I do believe it's a sensory input but who knows.

Hi , my daughter did the hand flapping and she is now 20 months. She didn’t point yet but point by whole hands. Should i concern about this. I am so worried about this signs mentioned as red flags in google.