Stimming

[Jimjams]

Need some theories on this. DS1's current stim is to kneel down and go all rigid arching his back. Or he sits or lies going all rigid and jerky (horrible explanation but does look a bit like a seizure- first time he did it at nursery they sent him home!) He's got really bad recently. Before starting school he'd pretty much stopped- we were all commenting on how he had completely stopped stimming. As soon as he started school it came back but with a vengence. He's fine at school or nursery but as soon as he comes home it starts. If I don't engage him in something it starts immediately (so he will sit there for several hours doing this literally). Turning the TV on makes it worse (I think its the bright lights- they over-stimulate him, in the sensory room at BIBIC he started stimming as soon as the bright bubble lights were turned on).

Is this just a sign of stress? Or of being overstimulated. I'm sure it can't just be stress because he stopped stimming on holiday despite being completely stressed most of the time (we thought it was because there was no tv).

Now if he wakes during the night he lies in bed going all rigid. I hate it- looks awful and really tiring, but I can't give him one to one the entire time obviously. Any tips?

Davros - not quite the same, ds didn't have 'colic' (agree it is a catch-all phrase) any more than any other child - he just didn't know how to suck and establishing b/feeding was really hard. Tried expressing with a bottle but he didn't seem to like that either so the first 6 weeks were really hard till he suddently seemed to get the idea and he was much happier. he was a late baby so I think his digestive system was mature - he was termed small for gestational age ... any of our other AS kids here like this?

Grommits - yes I had them as a kid - don't know if they made any difference - are they still used?

Mrs F - I don't have a lot of close friends. In fact before kids dh had to go away for the weekend and I spent the whole time from finishing work on Fri till Mon morning all on my own and I really enjoyed it. Good to hear things are going well with the psychologist.

I think autism is more common in the eldest child- but that may be down to more difficult births (I think things like CP are more common in the eldest as well).

Really don't see much autism in our family. No great uncles who collect pictures of telegraph poles or anything like that Loads and loads of autoimmunity though.

DS1 was the easiest smiliest happiest baby ever. Seriously. Everyone in the antenatal gorup used to say how laid back he was. I think he fits the "passive" type of autistic. I think screamy difficult autistic babies are more common (from talking to friends)

DS1 was 8lb 30z and has remained on the 75c line on the HV graphs ever since. He cried constantly and had good old COLIC!!!!! (convenient eh?!!) People used to stop me in the street and ask if my baby was alright!? He sounded awful....this then developed into the AS 'foreign' sounding voice! He slept little and B4 he could sit up he HAD to stand facing away from you on your lap so he could look around- he would not be cuddled and always awoke crying- I cannot remember a single day when he woke up and played in his cot- now at almost 10yrs old i can also say that the first 5-10 mins after he awakens are the hardest part of my day with him- bet this throws the cat among the pigeons!!!!Just illustrates really when you read all our descriptions how hard these 'spectrum' kids are to diagnose- there are so many variants!!

ds1 spent his first week being tube-fed because he refused to feed. Not a single drop. I wonder now if it was because his mouth is so sensitive. We had 2 months of 'colicky' screaming and then he suddenly became the most angelic laidback baby anyone had ever seen. I still don't know why he changed. I was just very grateful.

Reviving this for another "how do you tell the difference?" question (like current one on echolalia) on how one knows one is in "stim" territory. Ds does have quite a few behaviours like those described below (especially pacing while talking, singing through people talking to him, letting out shrieky noises for no apparent reason - things which if dd did them would stop me in my tracks) so I'm trying to find some kind of line to draw. Anyone know of any technical descriptions?

I'm working along the lines below (this isn't just ASD thoughts, it's more general). Thoughts welcome:

(1) tic: involuntary - you don't know you've done it till afterwards; doesn't seem to have a significant sensory element; fairly persistent trait of behaviour (lasts for months). Examples: blinking, arm twitching.

(2) comfort habit not within autistic (or other unusual) spectrum: voluntary but in certain kinds of mood/context (eg boredom, worry) difficult to suppress; indicates a normal set of sensory responses; very persistent (lasts lifelong). Examples: pen-twiddling in boring meeting, leg-jiggling on Tube, hair-twiddling when watching TV ... nose-picking ...

(3) ASD stim: semi-voluntary, very related to mood/context (eg (especially) overload feelings), redirection very difficult; form taken indicates something unusual going on in sensory terms; persistent? - don't know. Examples: rocking; finger-flicking; noises that probably sound interestingly odd in one's head.

(4) annoying slightly weird but ultimately NT habit not to stress about: voluntary, if a little difficult to suppress (but does respond to redirection); connected to an obvious (possibly novel) sensory source; more or less transient. Examples: irritating fake "Mutley" sounding laugh probably copied off schoolmate; having lost lower front two teeth, shooting one's tongue through the gap like a gormless snake.

I'm trying to fit the singing and shrieking into category (4), but I'm not quite confident I can.

Well I personally think a lot of ds1's stims come into the tics category. (as in Tourette's by the way- shouting is common in tourettes).

I think a lot of his noises are just to create background white noise as well as he's rarely quiet. He's in the room with me now and kind of humming, stimming with his eyes and arching his back. The back arching is involuntary and probably because he's bored (we're about to go out and it will stop) the sounds are background and the funny eyes is done completely on purpose and again probably just because he's bored.

Re 4 I used to do this sort of thing when I was a kid. I used to love to flap my hands as fast as I could, and relished the soft, wooly, feel that it gave them.

Ds does it, not sure if he is stiming or not. He tends to do it when he is excited/happy. He head bangs a bit as well, but that is on the decline

Does anyone know if stimming is unique to ASD? My dd sometimes does odd repetitive things like swivelling her head very quickly from one side to the other, or grinding her teeth. She'll usually repeat the behaviour a few times every day for a few days at a time and then it disappears. Does that sound like stimming? I had always assumed she had just found she could do something and was exploring it. Any thoughts welcome....

HITC we all stim. children with sensory processing problems are more likely to stim more often. However the difference I see between ds1 and an NT child is that left to his own devices he will ONLY stim. He simply cannot occupy his time in any other way. Which is caring for him 24 hours a day is so exhausting- it's a constant battle to engage him sufficiently that he doesn't stim.

Today is especially bad as I am attempting to tidy- so he has stimmed a lot today.

Ah, I see. Thanks for explaining. Bloody hell that sounds exhausting, emotionally as well .

It's physically exhausting for him as well as when he really blanks out his muscles go into spasm and he just kneels on the floor arching his back....

Is it something he may 'grow out of'? Don't mean stimming, but this particular one?