Stimming

"Stimming" is a term I use fairly often, and I thought it would be helfpul for our friends and family if I included a little more information on the topic today as my Autism Awareness post.

So what is "stimming"? The word is short for "self-stimulatory behavior." All of us do it to some extent, but people with autism do it...BIGGER! That's the best way I can describe it! It's usually some sort of repetitive movement that the person finds relaxing and soothing.

Some of Jacob's past and present "stims":

- Sucking his "woobie" (pacifier)

- Rubbing his face on someone else's legs or face (a big one right now...he often asks for "legs!")

- Grinding his teeth (more of a past stim, he had a period where this was an issue)

- Licking his lips

- Rubbing his thumb over his lips

- Looking at moving things upside down (he tries to lie on TOP OF the computer monitor and then look at videos upside down!!)

- Writing or reciting the alphabet

- Counting (at the doctor's office, he has to lie upside down on the little bed and look upside down at the tape measure taped to it, counting)

- Laughing/giggling

- Making noises, like little "whooo!!" sounds or loud "aaaaahs"

- Looking to the extreme left or right (using his eyes, not his head...does that make sense?!)

- Saying "airplane!" and making an airplane sound

- Saying, "Crash!"

- Spinning in an office chair

- Playing with water, especially with a hose

- Swinging

- Standing on a chair and trying to rock it

- Watching people or objects go down a slide

One of the things we have learned with ABA is that when a behavior is used as a reinforcer, it often fades out completely, or to a minimal level. That's why lots of his reinforcers involve activities listed above. He works a lot to do alphabet-related tasks in therapy, such as having the IA write it on his magna-doodle and then tracing it, or spelling words out with paper letters. Or he'll work to come and watch a section of a television show or movie that shows sliding (like the scene from Ice Age where all the characters go sliding down the ice...a BIG favorite!!). And lately some of his IAs have been letting him work to rub their legs or arms...pretty funny, but he loves it! It makes me laugh to hear an IA working with him as he is earning tokens, saying, "We're working for legs!" ;)

Our focus is mainly on keeping his stimulatory behaviors "appropriate" to the situation, and of course, SAFE. We also like to keep them at a minimal level. We don't want to restrict him SO much that he is just full of anxiety, but we also don't want him spending all, or a lot, of his free time spinning things.

We are working on getting rid of his pacifier now, but I think it'll be a long process because he is SOOOO attached to it. It relieves his stress/anxiety better than anything else and he asks for it a lot. Right now what I am trying to do is only let him have it for 5 minutes at a time. The problem is that with two other small children, it can be difficult for me to enforce this every time! We're trying though, and working on some substitutes (maybe gum?) that are more appropriate for a four year old.