how to gently stop arm flapping

[gracefulgoat]

Hi,

My 7 year old flaps her arms when mildly stressed. She doesn't do it when she is genuinely upset - perhaps just when being rushed? For example like interrupting her game to brush her teeth or telling her to hurry up and make a decision.

How can I gently encourage her to stop or will she grow out of it? It isn't a problem I just don't want kids to be mean to her as she gets older (or maybe that will be the end of it!).

She shows no other obvious signs of ASD so let's try not to get side tracked.
Thank you

People stim to self regulate, so getting her to stop will probably cause her a lot of stress.
Lots of children grow out of it naturally.

Leave her to grow out of it. You sound very against ASD- is this for a particular reason?

thanks @Flensburg

@sprinklesandshines I'm not - my other child is autistic! I just know it isn't relevant here but likely to crop up :)

You don’t need to stop it. It’s not a thing so don’t make it one

ok - I'll leave her be!

OP does not sound like she’s against ASD, she’s simply ensuring everyone is correctly informed so she gets the right answers to her question.

My daughter had a tick, she would open her mouth really wide quite often. I thought she would be teased at school but she wasn’t and grew out of it.

It’s hard to know when to step in and when to step back. I hope this thread is kind and helpful.

My, now 20, year old used to do this. She stopped naturally over time. We used to refer to it as penuin-ing. It was a gentle way to help her be aware when she was doing it.