Worried about Increase in Stimming
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| Fri, 02-17-2006 - 2:42pm |
I wonder if any of you moms with older kids have any ideas on this.
My son is 3.5 and goes to an Autistic Support Class 4 days a week for about 5.5 hours a day. He has been in the class since Sept and seems to be doing very well. He's talking more and more and has just begun to use full sentences to ask for things. He hasn't started declarative speech yet, but very occaissionally in the past two weeks he has begun saying little snippets of thoughts that are obviously going through his mind. Yesterday he got off the school babbling about carrot seeds and tomato seeds, which I assume they are talking about in school.
My question is that yesterday they sent home a note from school saying that they had noticed a marked increase in the visual stimming and tactile stimming in school. Kiki likes to run things past his eye very closely (visual stim) and he also likes to rub toys on his tummy (tactile stim).
Now, I have noticed an increase in all sorts of stimming at home since before Christmas, but it's remained pretty constant. When I asked about it at school they said that they didn't really see it that much, except when he was tired.
I have noticed a pattern of increase in stimming and regressons of a small sort before he takes a big leap forward...before he began to talk, before he began to put two words together and more recently before he began to string words together.
He is continuing to move forward with speech and following directions at a nice pace, but the stimming has definitely increased all around now. Has anyone else seen an increase in this with their kids.
Kiki really doesn't have a lot of other behavior issues. He's really laid back for the most part and he is continuing to learn and teach himself things (right now, we are obsessing about the planets and the solar system), and he is making improvements in when we go to the store (he will stay by me and not run off) and when we go out to eat. So, on one hand I'm apt to just kind of accept the increase in stimming as a trade off, so to speak.
But is it a bad sign of things to come, or just a way for Kiki to cope with new things and blow off steam?
Any ideas?
Thanks for reading this.
Gemma

Increased stimming can be a few things.
It could be a sign that he is ready for another developmental leap. It is common for our kids to regress a bit, get more stressed and increase behaviors such as stimming before a leap.
He could be under extra stress. Are thier any changes at school? Any changes at home? Any increased demands on him since he is gaining more skills are they adding objectives? any of those things could increase his stress and often stimming is an outlet for stress.
If you are in a colder climate and he isn't getting as much exercise or sensory activities it could be because of that. Think of it as ASD version of cabin fever or even seasonal affective disorder as well as all that seasonal stuff from this time of year. Valentines just went by with parties and tons of candy too.
All of these likely indicate a sensory system out of whack. Likely what I would do is increase his sensory diet and sensory interventions. Does he have an OT who does sensory stuff? That would help to get some ideas from that person that are specific to your son and usually what calms him.
The vision thing makes me think vestibular stuff. There is even an enclosed swing with a air cushion you can get for inside your home from IKEA for less than $30. I believe it is available for shipping too. You just install it in a beam in the ceiling. That is just one idea.
Renee
We haven't had an increase in stimming per se -- Sylvie (4 y.o.) has never really been a big stimmer -- but we've had a HUGE increase in anxiety, tactile defensiveness, and tantrums over the past few weeks. I wrote about it in a post below. Sylvie's OT, along with a bunch of the ladies here, told me that it's fairly common for our kids to have a spike in autistic behaviors during Jan/Feb... perhaps that's part of what's going on?
Just to let you know you're not alone...
Jennifer
Gemma,
Nathan stims all the time. His stimming started in preschool. I would always see flunctuations in his stimming. He stims when he's stressed, excited, or worried. And he also stims when he's winding down from the day...kind of a release for him. He would cope pretty well when we're out and when he's at school.
This past year though, I have noticed an increase in his stimming. He will now stim while we are out, like at the store...which leads me to believe that he is doing it at school. I've asked the teachers and his aid, but they don't see it. Frankly, I don't think they have much of a clue!! LOL I think it relaxes and calms him.
This year is a full day of school, and also eating lunch at school. Lots of responsibilities and expectations for a 1st grader! But as a whole, Nathan's autie traits have surfaced more this year too.
michelle
I have to agree with an increase in stimming with an increase of stress at school. The cabin fever theory is new to me but it makes sense. I learn something new everytime I come to this board.
Christie
Michelle,
Cait and Mike stim at school too but the teachers and aides don't really notice it for what it is or it is just such a part of him, lol. Cait not so much anymore but Mike definitely does. I think it depends on the kind of stimming.
Cait does this rubbing her fingers together thing and snifs stuff. It is not really noticable so the teachers often didn't notice.
Mike does a variety of things. I know when he was in 2nd grade I have a report from the OT noting behaviors like rocking, spinning objects, and flicking a girls hair in front of him. The mainstream teachers just thought he was being naughty or hyper or not listening and those were pretty obvious.
Now he does some stuff like this flying martial arts stuff on the playground, or going back and forth on the monkey bars, he will shake his hands, some visual stuff, lots and LOTS of verbal noises and lines (particularly when he is hyper) Infact the verbal stuff was so bad that "shouting out" was an IEP objective last year. But they never say that he has "more stimming" oncertain days, but he does. If you label the exact behaviors they notice it but I am not sure they label it specifically as stimming because stimming is hard to define.
Renee
Renee
Renee,
I totally agree....I have mentioned certain things to the teachers in the past. And THEN they say, "oh, yeah...I've noticed him doing that!" DUH!!!! I do think they just feel that it's part of who our kids are, and don't really give it a second thought. Although, Nathan's stimming seems quite obvious to me.
Nathan used to do the verbal stimming..sighing type noises as he blinks his eyes and look rapidly at the ceiling and all around the room. Sometimes smiling as he does this. He has now eliminated the noise part, but still does the thing with his eyes. Sometimes his noises come back though.
This year he has also started breathing real heavy. It's so loud! The kids at school have to tell him to breathe softly! He's not always aware of this either. So we do have to remind him. I'm afraid he's going to hyperventilate and pass out!!! lol
As I said in another post, Nathan has starting doing his stimming while we're at the store or out somewhere. He used to hold it in quite well, and just wait til we're in the car or at home. But now when he does this, he flips his wrist around alot...does that make sense? Along with the whole eye thing too. But he doesn't really do the wrist thing at home. I have wondered why.
michelle
Renee,
Thanks for the swing seat idea. I will be getting one this week. Kiki LOVES to swing, and I think it will be a good addition to the family room...maybe I can swing, too..tee hee.
As for the increase in stress...there really hasn't been too much going on either at home or at school. Except for, as I mentioned, that Kiki is speaking in complete sentences now, at least 40 to 50 percent of the time. And that is new behavior, like in the past two to three weeks. Perhaps it's stressing him out a little bit, more work and more stretching going on in there. His little brain is such a puzzle to me. He can memorize and sit and figure out puzzles no sweat, teach himself new sight words-no problem. But SPEAKING words, it must give him a hard time. I try to encourage and praise like crazy and I know he responds to that positive reenforcement.
But, we are moving forward, and that's got to be good, right? The stimming is just so much a part of who he is, and I don't want to change it or stop it totally. Just make it more manageable and give him more options.
Anyways, thanks for the info. The swing chair goes up this weekend :)
Gemma
I have also noticed a big increase in my son who is also a visual stimmer. He has been running in circles for a couple of weeks and has been very hard to redirect. My OT suggested a trampoline which has helped a great deal. Renee's idea of a swing is a good one and one that was also suggested by our OT. She also told us to load a kids shopping cart with heavy objects that they can drag around. My son usually has this kind of behavior when he takes a leap in development, usually speech and I also have to agree with the cabin fever thing. I can't wait for Spring(LOL).
Teresa