The Signs : Stims

What is stimming? It is short for self-stimulation or repetitive behaviour. This is another easily recognizable trait of autism.


When a child stims, he does it all by himself without any interaction with another person. He concentrates on a certain repetitive behaviour and in this way, enters into his own world, and seems lost to his surroundings.


One of the most common stims is spinning. Kojiq used to turn his toy cars upside down or on its side, starts to spin a wheel and sit watching it, and would do this for hours on end. For the unsuspecting adults (like what Jenny McCarthy said on Oprah) our reaction upon seeing this would be "oh, he's interested in cars, maybe he'd grow up to be an engineer or a technician". Little do we know *sigh*


Another common stims is lining up objects on the floor. Kojiq used to line up as many as 10 or more matchbox toy cars in a straight line. If anyone removes one of the cars or disturbs the straight line, he would scream and toss up the toys , then start lining them up again.


Another stims he used to do alot was going up and down a slide. Difficult to control if there are other kids also playing on the slide. People thought he was rude and played rough, but the truth is that he didn't know how to take turns sliding with the other kids because he's not totally aware of his surroundings. He was also fascinated by escalators, and it used to be my job to accompany him up and down mall esclators countless times, so tiring! AlhamduliLlah these days he still asks to ride the mall escalators, but just once or twice is enough to satisfy him *phew!*


One stims which Kojiq is still obsessed with nowadays is water play. At any chance he could, he would spill water onto furniture or the floor, then run his hands all over it. Or if he finds any other container, he would pour water from one container into the other repetitively. The ending, when he decides to stop the stims episode, would always be pouring water over the front of his clothes *sigh* It's almost impossible to control this one, because water is available everywhere all the time - including his drinking water. So we resort to giving him only a small portion of drinks at a time, otherwise it's so messy!


Another variation of this stims is the one I mentioned in an earlier post, where he runs around the house playing with electrical switches. Dangerous, I know. We have to constantly watch him, and try to distract him with other activities whenever he starts to reach for the switches.


Other common stims (which Kojiq doesn't do) are flapping hands, rolling objects on the floor, looking or staring at the same book, picture or object, or just staring at a wall.


More about the 'why's and 'how to's of stimming in the next post. Meanwhile, thank you for taking time to read and trying to understand about autism!


:-)