Stimming

[hh95]

Hi, my 2.2 year old seems to show signs of stimming when excited which I know is a sign of ASD. He runs and jumps a lot and flaps his hands when really excited. He never does these things as a reaction to any other emotion and it never lasts more than a few seconds. He flaps his hands when he runs also which I’ve heard can be linked to dyspraxia too. There is nothing else that really concerns me about is his behaviour though and he scores low risk on the mchat, so I’m finding it hard to work out why he is stimming or is it quite normal for his age? Would appreciate any advice. Thank you 😊

Hi op. So the thing is even neurotypical people can sometimes stim. for example tapping your foot or drumming fingers when bored etc chewing on the end of a pencil.The difference is with children /people with autism the stimming is usually more obvious I guess you can say , such as hand flapping ,spinning ,lining things up and perceived as less socially acceptable. Since your son is only young and he's showing no other red flags then I wouldn't worry just yet, his flapping and jumping sounds like it's just his way of showing his excitement :) if you notice any other signs then might be worth looking into more but as a stand alone thing I don't think I would worry too much. Hth xx

Hi! Just wondering if you had an update on your little boy. Does he still do this or has he grown out of it? My little boy is exactly the same but also has abit of a speech delay so naturally abit worried

Hiya! My son is 4.5 now and started school in September. He completely grew out of the hand flapping by the time he was 3 and has no obvious stims anymore, he also had delayed speech. It can definitely be ‘normal’ behaviour in neurotypical toddlers. Hope that helps reassure you, I’ve been in that worrying place and it’s not fun!

Thank you so much! That’s so good to hear!! How is his speech now?

Above expectations for his age! So I promise it’s not the end of the world and DOES get better! Xx