Stimming

Image from Live Strong

Stimming is a repetitive body movement that self-stimulates one or more senses in a regulated manner. Stimming is known in psychiatry as a "stereotypy", a continuous movement.

Stimming is one of the symptoms listed by the DSM IV for autism, although it is observed in about 10 percent of non-autistic children. A few autistic people have no stims. Common forms of stimming among autistic people include hand flapping, body spinning or rocking, lining up or spinning toys or other objects, echolalia, perseveration, and repeating rote phrases.

There are many theories about the function of stimming, and the reasons for its increased incidence in autistic people. For hyposensitive people, it may provide needed nervous system arousal, releasing beta-endorphins. For hypersensitive people, it may provide a "norming" effect, allowing the person to control a specific sense, and is thus a soothing behavior. It can also serve as a way to communicate, or to calm down. Stimming is a natural behavior that can improve emotional regulation and prevent meltdowns in stressful situations.

Examples

Some common examples of stimming include:

Sense	Stimming Actions
Visual	Flapping hands, blinking and / or moving fingers in front of eyes; staring repetitively at a light
Auditory	Making vocal sounds; snapping fingers
Tactile	Scratching; rubbing the skin with one's hands or with an external object
Vestibular	Moving body in rhythmic motion; rocking front and back or side-to-side
Gustatory	Licking body parts; licking an object
Olfactory	Smelling objects or hands; other people

The above is only an illustrative list, and there are many different ways to stim.

Benefits of Stimming

• Increased ability to remain calm
• Reduced meltdowns
• Increased tolerance of challenging sensory situations
• Increased focus, attention span, and task management abilities
• Self-acceptance as an autistic person

"Smiling Autistic Girl Flaps Hands" by autistic artist Miss Luna Rose

Autistic people should be allowed to stim as needed. Accommodations can be made to environments, such as sitting on an exercise ball for wiggly autistic people, or stim toys kept in the classroom. Parents and educators should encourage stimming as long as it is not harmful.

Autistic people may benefit from various stimming tools: tangles and other fidget toys, stress balls, bracelets, chewy jewelry, and beanbags. People who have trouble sitting still can use an exercise ball as a chair, and spend plenty of time exploring or exercising outdoors.

Issues with Stims

Most stims are purely beneficial, but a few cause injury or invade others' personal space. If an autistic person uses harmful stims, the autistic person or a parent/caregiver should discuss with a therapist how to replace that stim with something less harmful. For example, banging the head could be replaced with vigorously shaking the head.

Autistic people and many loved ones are critical of the idea that stimming should be suppressed simply because it considered "socially inappropriate."

"Oh, wait, I know: socially inappropriate stims are ones that draw attention to us. If you rock in public, people will stare.

And whose problem is that? Try out these sentences instead: If you sign in public, people will stare. If you use your wheelchair in public, people will stare. If you limp in public, people will stare. If you use your assistance dog in public, people will stare.

And if people do stare, other people will think they’re rude. Who would tell a Deaf person not to sign in public or a paraplegic not to use their wheelchair in public? But people tell autistic kids not to stim in public all the time." — Cynthia Kim

If a child's stim looks unusual, parents/caregivers may wish to casually and nonjudgmentally inform them that it looks odd. This allows the autistic person to decide whether it is worth the effort to redirect it.

In some cases, stimming can be mistaken as a sign of drug use.

Stimming in Autistic Culture

The Stimtastic logo aims to capture the joy and movement of stimming.

"Last night as I was waiting for the pasta to cook, I found myself twirling in the kitchen and instead of stopping, I let myself enjoy it. I kicked out my foot and make a full spin to the right, then kicked out my other foot and twirled to the left. I did it again and again and soon I found myself laughing out loud.

Twirling around in the kitchen feels good. It feels right." — Cynthia Kim

Celebration of stimming is a common aspect of neurodiversity, acceptance, and autistic culture. They argue that stimming is not only an important coping mechanism, but an action as natural and beautiful as smiling or laughing. This can help autistic people recover from abuse and accept themselves as Autistic.

Autistic people routinely exchange advice about finding helpful ways to stim, redirecting harmful or unwanted stims, and relearning to stim.

Stimming plays a noticeable role in autistic art with many Autistic artists drawing illustrations of diverse and often happy stimming people.

The Loud Hands anthology is titled as a direct rebellion to some people's desire that autistic people stop looking autistic.

Quiet Hands and Abuse

Some therapists, especially in ABA, believe that stimming should be suppressed, so that autistic children will appear more normal. They use the words quiet hands to train autistic children not to stim. Frequently this involves physically restraining the child until the child complies automatically.

"Quiet Hands" by autistic artist Miss Luna Rose

"Quiet Hands is... the equivalent to duct taping [a non-autistic] person’s mouth shut or preventing a nonspeaking D/deaf person from signing."

Many individuals in the autistic community believe that this training is abusive. Julia Bascom wrote an oft-cited personal essay on the trauma, shame, and fear that Quiet Hands instilled in her. Suppression of stimming is believed to impair executive function, making it more difficult for autistic people to pay attention, collect their thoughts, and focus on tasks. Many autistic adults protest the suppression of stims in children.

“Quiet hands!”

I’ve yet to meet a student who didn’t instinctively know to pull back and put their hands in their lap at this order. Thanks to applied behavioral analysis, each student learned this phrase in preschool at the latest, hands slapped down and held to a table or at their sides for a count of three until they learned to restrain themselves at the words.

The literal meaning of the words is irrelevant when you’re being abused.

Advocacy groups such as ASAN and the Autism Women's Network seek to end abuse and promote therapies with a more accepting approach towards autistic people.

References

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