Can stimming change over time?

[Lefmry]

I mean I’m very much used to my sons vocal stimming but he makes an ‘eeeee’ noise and whilst I don’t mind it, it can sometimes take you by surprise when he does it REALLY loud. It can also wake his younger siblings up whilst they nap annoyingly. Just wondering really as he’s only 5 if his stimming could change over the years?

Yes it can.

Yes absolutely! We've had so many different stims, I've lost count tbh.

Yes and it can be morphed into something less abrasive. We treat it like a tic.

Interesting. How do you manage that, I guess Dc must listen to your requests?? I’ve always found vocal stuff the hardest to modify… if he’s going to eeeee he’s going to eeeee. No amount of bribing, telling off, trying to quieten him works. In fact he finds it hilarious and does it more. IMO it’s sitting it out until he moves on (and painful in the meantime!)

Ds my ds is very sensitive to sound and quite controlling. It is easy to give examples of how his behaviour might be annoying.

@Ohthatsabitshit but how do you get him to modify it (if I’ve read your first post correctly?).

Ive probably not got great patience levels but ongoing repetitive noise often in the way my DS does it (very loud or in a very odd or abrasive tone) is incredibly annoying. It also to quote one poster of years ago with a great quote induces the ‘lemon sucking faces of the general public’ so when DS is having one of these spells really affects what I can/ want to do with him out of the house.

for a child like him who won’t stop when I ask him to (in fact does it more), and it doesn’t direct into something else (that I can find) it’s a nightmare. So anyone else’s successes i am always keen to read about!

OP I think also that certainly my DS does it because (a) he can and (b) there is an absence of other things he can/ wants to do. I live in hope that as that changes things like this will naturally fade away.

It’s hard to answer @carriebradshawwithlessshoes because ds has different modes and I do lots of different things all intertwined. Mine will stop if he can if asked but he didn’t or couldn’t originally. He has Tourette’s as well as asd so some of the outbursts are less controllable than others. As he’s got older there are very loud outbursts that can be quite alarming. The first one is usually a surprise to all of us but subsequent repeats I think can be suppressed. He also recites films and cartoons, and all sorts of things can trigger that. It’s easier for him to rein in but also not really a problem as I find it easier to zone out. There are also times when he will basically rap songs or bites of text. They can be very very irritating and tend to become more and more agitated these are the hardest because often unchecked they are the precursor to seizure (he has epilepsy), but they aggravate others more and so can escalate quickly.
It took a long time for ds to understand we could hear him, and even now he says “how did you know I was doing that?” fairly often. I give lots of examples of how it makes me feel and since he finds the world an abrasive place I can usually pull up something equivalent. I then say well if it’s ok for you to XXXX can I <insert example of something he’d hate>, then we go back and forth with that a bit. Over time he has become kinder. He is allowed to go and blather on in his room or outside and I wouldn’t let him get distressed.

My Son's vocal and facial stims change - usually stuck with them for a year or so. I have a theory (possibly rubbish) that it's muscle tension that DS likes when he stims, more than the noise itself. That's because DS's stims use the same face and vocal muscles, even when the stim habit changes.

I wonder - but obviously don't know - if your child will find a substitute for the 'eee' sound eventually. Might be worth a chat with OT if you think it's sensory seeking behaviour. Good luck!