ear twiddling all the time...

[Windandsand]

my 5 yr old ds won't stop twiddling with his ears. he has always fiddled with his ears from tiny when going to sleep but i have noticed his ears are getting sore behind where he must be doing it all day at school all of a sudden. he is tired at the end of the school day, but is it nerves he is doing it? he doesn;t really like school (misses home) and doesn't seem to know when he is doing it now. how can i stop it without causing him more stress? i don't want him told off, but it makes him look stupid, always head on one side twiddling away:(

Hi - don't stress about this answer! but does your ds also 'dream' - associated with dislike of school and fiddling of hair/ears/fingers is a symptom of aspergers.

That said - moving on! - he doesnt look stupid & could well be nerves like nail biting. 5 is so small..... something else to fiddle with - a small toy of some kind/soft toy. Also - if sore could be making worse - as a sufferer of skin diseases in my household recommend e45/sudocrem piled on at night to sort out as the soreness will make irritation - spiral of twiddling.

Good luck

Hi there! I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help but wanted to suggest that I can't imagine your ds looks stupid, just incredibly cute! He has found a way of self-comforting himself and if I were you I would let him carry on with it.

My sister did this and also used to twiddle other prople's ears too. We played a game once with some friends which involved my blindfolded sister attempting to identify everyone by twiddling their ears - she got everyone right!

Oh and she doesn't have aspergers and still twiddles her own ear when she's tired at age 27

As a child I sucked my right thumb and twiddled my left ear with my left hand. At about aged 7 I stopped sucking my thumb, but I'm ashamed to say that I STILL fiddle and twiddle my left ear, particularly if tired or stressed! No idea why, it is a nervous habit and bizarrely comforting! I have always had to be very self aware not to do it in important business meetings or other embarrassing places! Same as thumb sucking I suppose - my mother worked hard to help me cut out the thumb sucking but didn't tackle the ear thing! No aspergers here. It does look pretty silly though - not at 5 I mean but at 39......... I'm not sure how to advise you on helping him to cut it out. Perhaps follow similar thing I did with my DDs thumb sucking: when I saw her sucking during the day I would say 'oh you are sucking your thumb, you must be tired why don't you go and lie down on your bed and have a little rest', that soon stopped her.