Is this stimming?

[Ineed2]

Before half term Dd3 was throat clearing at least once a minute and licking her lips and rubbing her face, I knew she was stressed and tired and put it down to this. This week she has not throat cleared at all. Her face is completely healed so no lip licking.

But now she is clicking her fingers A LOT
She started doing it earlier in the week and has continued all week.
She seems fairly relaxed has had a lot of one to one as her sister is away and has been watching Horrid Henry on and off all week [her idea of heaven!!].

We have had a good week generally.
Any ideas, should I tell her to stop or leave it, it isn't really harming anyone it's just mildly irritating.[hgrin].

no one around [hsad].

I let a fair bit of stimming go tbh because with ds he needs to do it to keep grounded or focussed. Plus it stops his self harm and aggression. I do try and re direct though if it's happening so much that it is stopping him doing anything else.It's a hard call though isn't it.

Thankyou.
Northern.. I bought her a fiddle toy yesterday, it has stopped her eating the tv buttons today but the clicking is still going strong.
Dd3 bites the skin off her fingers too and does other things when she is stressed. She doesn't seem stressed today, actually very relaxed for her.

Asdx.. do you think it is stimming then? I am happy to let it go if it helps her to stay relaxed, It will be interesting to see if it continues when she goes back to school or if we go back to throat clearing and lip licking!

I am curious because we have now been referred to camhs and I am sure they will be interested in this. [must remember to put it in the diary].

These are the sorts of details I note down every night. I have a page a day diary for DS2 and DS1 and use the data to look for changes over time.

I regard repetitive or odd behaviours as stimming. Some clearly indicate different levels of stress and some actually indicate happiness in our household. Some just mean fingers which need to be kept busy.

I don't really know what particular behaviour is "stimming." I know that DS2 always seems to have to tear little bits of paper off magazines and catalogues and such and roll them back and forth repeatedly between his fingers all the time. I'm constantly taking them off them as I have to make sure DS3 (15 months) doesn't pick them up and eat them (is in the "everything into the mouth" stage ). DS2 gets incredibly edgy if he is doing this and I simply take it away, so I try to nab them when he is putting them down.

But what constitutes stimming behaviour, as I'm not really sure? I always thought it was either vocal or repetitive movements, but am obviously not educated in this at all.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me? (sorry, if this is sidetracking to the initial post, please let me know and I'll post it elsewhere)

No its fine triggles I am curious to.
I am under the impression that any repetetive movements or noises could be classed as stimming.
I am also curious as to why Dd3's have changed so suddenly and if the change is directly related to her not being at school[hhmm].

NorthernSky - thanks - I will see if I can't locate that book. So do you think that the rolling paper pieces repeatedly between his fingers would be that? He does seem to do it frequently, although I am not certain what his actual mood is when he is doing it (he's not great with sharing these details yet as he's 4). I would love nothing better than to take the paper away from him when I see him start to tear it and roll it, but he gets quite agitated when I try to take it, so I've rather left him to it and resorted to retrieving it quickly when I see him getting ready to put it down.

Ds has many stims some of them very obvious and disruptive like the running up and down, skipping backwards and forwards,clapping,his loud groaning and wringing his hands.He also has more subtle ones like twirling his hair,grimacing,licking his lips, twirling blu tac and blinking quickly.
The subtle ones are done when he realises that the obvious ones would be stopped or because he is aware it would draw attention to him.
Sometimes though he can't stop the obvious ones particularly the wringing hands and loud groaning and it does bring stares
Ds needs to stim to release stress so after school he has a period of time to do just that. He also stims when he is anxious (often), happy and angry.
I would say ds's stim is a repetitive behaviour that helps him cope.

AFAIK, stimming is anything that provides a sensory input. Like we would smell hot chocolate/a glass of wine before drinking it to prolong the experience [hsmile]

To a child with asd, anything can be stimulating to the senses - pica, smearing, noises, smells... So there's not reason that finger clicking wouldn't provide it from both touch and sound. I used to work with a lad who hand flapped - when he got really stressed his hand would hit his teeth and he could end up with a red and sore hand . Luckily we helped him discover the wonderful world of fidget toys and he transferred it to a more socially acceptable stim (how many guys play trouser billiards on occasion??? This lad kept his toys there)

PS I have noticed that, when I'm anxious, I press the tips of my fingers together one by one

Thanx everyone, I think for the time being I will go with the finger clicking as Dd3 obviousy gets some sort of pleasure from doing it [and its better than lip licking].
I am continuing to keep a diary and will take it to camhs when she gets an appointment.