If an individual becomes too overwhelmed and overstimulated by their environment, they may exhibit negative or dangerous stimming behaviours. These stimming behaviours can involve self-harm behaviours, such as head banging, nail biting, hair pulling, or inappropriate outbursts in social settings.
Risks of Stimming
Instead of reacting negatively to stimming behavior, people can choose to redirect their attention to something else or acknowledge it with acceptance. Self-harm. Some stims are harmful. Head banging, hair pulling, and biting nails may have health consequences.
While stimming is often not a dangerous behavior, it can have adverse physical, emotional, or social effects on some individuals.
Common medical issues can also prompt self-injurious behaviors. The shortlist of conditions that can provoke aggressive stimming is inflammation (allergies, drug reactions, food intolerances), dental problems (new teeth, cavities, gum issues), stomach or digestion issues, as well as headaches and other body pain.
Stimming – or self-stimulatory behaviour – is repetitive or unusual body movement or noises. Stimming might include: hand and finger mannerisms – for example, finger-flicking and hand-flapping. unusual body movements – for example, rocking back and forth while sitting or standing.
Self-stimulatory behavior is not unique to individuals on the autism spectrum and can be seen in neurotypical individuals as well.
Stimming is a normal behavior for people on the spectrum, but watch out for changes. Autistic people might stim in order to reduce anxiety, so an increase in stimming could be a cause for concern. New self-harm behaviors, like head-banging or scratching, could also appear after trauma.
Stimming can also become a problem if behaviors persist for hours or become a daily occurrence. In these cases, they may actually cause distress and further impair the ability to self-regulate emotions.
Some ADHD stimming examples include humming, pacing, teeth grinding, and rocking, though there are many others. Stimming is normal in ADHD, but can be problematic if it disrupts everyday functioning or results in self-harm or injury. Medication, self-control techniques, and environment changes may help.
The short answer to “Should I stop my child from stimming?” is no. You don't want to stop it, as long as they're not harming themselves or another person. These behaviors are calming to the kids. You can, however, limit the stimming in some circumstances.
Educate Yourself About Your Child's Condition
For example, self-stimulation (spinning, hand flapping, etc.) is very common in children with autism. These behaviors help them regulate their emotions, and you could do more harm than good by punishing them for doing it.
In reality, neurotypical people stim, too - they just might not realize it. Common examples of stimming include rocking, clenching fists, tapping fingers, and humming. Some people stim in response to anxiety or stress, while others stim when they're bored or fatigued.
Destigmatising stimming
Since it assists in coping with stimulations that are unbearable, we should not take away a system that is essential for their living. By forcing them to stop stimming, it is comparable to telling a person not to cry in a rather sad situation.
In reality, any form of stim suppression, including “whole body listening,” can make it harder for students to learn and pay attention and can actually be harmful to neurodiverse and disabled people who learn best by being allowed to stim and fidget in class and are uncomfortable with eye contact.
Stimming is a type of self-stimulatory behavior— like blinking, rocking back and forth, or picking at scabs—that people do to self-soothe. Anyone can stim, but stimming is commonly linked with neurodivergence, ADHD, and autism.
What Is Posturing in Autism? Posturing is the act of holding one's fingers or hands out at an angle. It is merely one example of stimming or self-stimulatory behavior. It's also defined as arching the back while sitting.
Tactile stimming refers to repetitive behaviors connected to a person's sense of touch. Examples may include: Rubbing or scratching of hands or objects. Repetitive hand motions such as opening and closing fists. Tapping fingers repeatedly.
You might chew on your pens or rock back and forth in your seat when you're anxious. This phenomenon is called stimming, and it's a normal part of living with adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
But in talking with hundreds of patients during eight years with CAST, Dr. Hanks has come to understand that stimming is often an essential coping mechanism that helps people on the autism spectrum manage overwhelming emotions.
Often, these behaviors occur when someone is bored, anxious, overwhelmed, in pain, or experiencing another strong emotion; in these cases, the behavior is usually short-lived or can be stopped with a small amount of effort. For autistic people, however, stimming behaviors may be more frequent or more intense.
Examples of stimming behavior include: Repetitive behaviors: fidget tool use, snapping/unsnapping or zipping/unzipping fasteners, flicking, twirling hair. Hand mannerisms: flapping hands, snapping fingers, unusual finger placements. Body movements: rocking back and forth, jumping, scratching, pacing.
Subtle forms of stimming, such as hair-twisting, may go unnoticed. More dramatic forms of stimming, such as face-slapping, may be alarming to witness. Forms of stimming that cause physical damage may qualify as self-injurious behavior (SIB).
Stimming or self-stimulating behaviour includes arm or hand-flapping, finger-flicking, rocking, jumping, spinning or twirling, head-banging and complex body movements.