Strimming

[Starfish25]

Hi,
Is it wrong to try and stop your son from strimming? He will run around in circles with his head down while humming, him humming ect doesn't bother me I just don't want him to hurt himself sooner or later he is going to crash into something we have had a few near misses. Plus him doing this is getting more and more frequent is this normal to do it more? I'm still learning about Autism, there is so much to get your head around. Thanks if anyone can help

Can you move furniture etc out of the way? I'm new to this too, but I think stimming, or self- stimulatory behaviour, helps children/ people with autism regulate or 'organise' themselves. I wouldn't be keen to stop it, but maybe try and understand what triggers it, and then modify or reduce the opportunity for the trigger. Not that that will stop it necessarily!
My ds has an arm rotating stim. I think- not not 100% sure- it happens more when he is trying to process something on his mind that is overwhelming but he can't verbalise it.

Hi Starfish,

If he hasn't hurt himself yet I would be tempted to let him get on with it. Autistic children tend to stim to soothe themselves or to stimulate themselves, so if it isn't causing harm it might be better to leave him to it.

I'd really recommend going on the Cygnet course (when they start again after covid) because they have lots of helpful information about stimming.

If you want to reduce them you might want to play detective and try to work out what need they are serving, and get in there first. My son's stims tend to happen when he's a bit bored or low energy and help him to reenergise, so if I wanted to stop them I would probably try to notice those situations and introduce something stimulating (trampoline, snack, activity) for him to do instead.