Hand flapping

[WTRH]

Hi all, my DS is 3.9 months and is developmentally on course, this is according to his nursery.

My main concern is that he tends to flap when he's very excited but this isn't all the time. And maybe a few times a week at the TV and his marble run toy otherwise he'll just giggle in excitement or jump around.

Does anyone else see this in their children and is this 'normal' as I've read it can be associated with autism and other developmental conditions.

Thanks for any advice.

X

My 2.5YO does it when she's upset. She also hand leads me sometimes. She's also highly sociable, talks for England, plays some brilliant imaginative games and is funny, sassy and clever. I'm not especially worried about ASD. I think these things have to be taken in context of the child as a whole Do you have any other concerns or is it just the hand flapping?

Thanks @jannt86... My son, like you daughter is very sociable and loves attention all the time and on any playdate or at nursery is constantly looking to play with other children and teachers/adults...... So I don't have any concerns with that side of things.... He does like to be a bit controlling sometimes when playing.

His speech was a little late and only really started putting 2 - 3 words together at 2.5... But he easily had about 159 words by the time he was 2.5 and had loads of phrases like

I did it
Help please
Thank you
Hello daddy
Bye bye
Etc

but is now putting anything up to 8 words in a sentence together... Asks and answers questions.... Some of his sentences can sometimes be the same when asked the same question but it's all appropriate

Points to things, points out things of interest.... did used to lead us by the hand by has stopped this, can occasionally tip toe in the house but only on the wood flooring and not carpet or in shoes... He does some imaginary play but not a huge amount... For exaplme... Pretends his teddy's can talk, Pretends there's a monster in his bed and we have to run away.... Or could be he's holding his Teddy and the Teddy is swimming and then going down a slide... Or Pretends a stick is a wand etc.....normally lasts about 5mins or so then he's off playing with his toys... . He generally loves playing with his train track, puzzles and his car toys.

I don't have any other children to compare him against but we've always felt the flapping was concerning and not sure if we have anything to worry about and appreciate nobody can say for sure on here. But from what I've described does it sound like we should be worried?

Any other advice from others .. Its causing me a lot of anxiety.... Thanks

If the flapping is your only area of concern it is unlikely to be autism. Although flapping can be an autistic trait other children and adults stim too. It may indicate that not all his sensory needs are being met. It is worth googling non-autistic stimming. I used to flap my hands as a child when I was excited. As I grew up I learnt more socially acceptable stims.

Sorry. I only just noticed that you'd asked these questions. I'm not an expert. I think it's probably something you should also ask your HV and his nursery. I'll be honest it's less words than my dd uses (I counted about 500 the other day and there's tonnes I missed but I got bored) However that doesn't mean your LO is behind. I expect he has a few more words if you really think about it but I had to really think hard when I liated them. Are you counting linker words etc? I think they count but I didn't count words in songs etc only what she uses in conversation. I think expected is anything from around 300-1000 words by age 3 but like I say I'm not an expert and it probably still needs to be taken in context of what else is going on

Thanks again @jannt86 from memory I don't think I went into huge detail when counting his collection of words but from some small research it looks like a 2-3 year old should be using anything from 200-1000 words which seems very vast! Either way he seems to have 'caught up' and using sentences of around 8 words now which is age appropriate... So I imagine if he is on the spectrum he would be sitting at the higher functioning end..... He's playing with his marble run right now and jumping with excitement.... Sometimes it's a flap and other times it's a jump.... I'm guessing time will tell.... I don't want to go searching for a diagnosis... . Just not sure my anxiety can take it

Thanks also @dimples76 I will look that up online tonight once I've put him to bed and gained some sanity!

Hi OP- I know this is a very old post, but if you are still around can I ask you how is your son now?

Hi @usernamebilly .....quite a lot has changed since my post,....my son is 6 now and is so different to when I posted. He's a non stop talker albeit he definitely struggles with sentence structure and constantly getting his words mixed up. Doesn't flap anymore, very social, doing well at school, is liked by most and seems to have a small group of preferable friends he likes and plays with .....

We're on a pathway to an ADHD diagnosis as he struggles with concentration, emotions and sitting still / easily distracted but if you'd had asked me this question when I originally posted then I would had probably responded with way more concerns but as he seems to age things are falling into place more and more. ...I have no idea what the future holds but if its anything like the last 2-3 years of progress then I'll be over the moon as it seems brighter than I originally thought in my head.

Hope this helps

@WTRH Thank you for coming back with an update. I'm glad your DS is thriving and hope he will be getting the right support once he gets the right diagnosis x