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What Is Stimming?Stimming is repetitive stereotypic behavior commonly found in autism, but also found in other developmental disabilities. This behavior may involve any or all of the senses in various degrees in different individuals. Several examples are listed below.
All of us engage in some of these behaviors occasionally, especially when we are stressed. However, your child may engage in these activities excessively so that they may interfere with learning or activities of daily living. Also, these behaviors may be embarrassing to you and others. Individuals engage in stimming as a way to self-regulate sensory input and manage sensory integration dysfunction. These behaviors may be excitatory (stimulating) or inhibitory (calming) with the result of normalizing sensations. Occupational therapy can help to reduce this unwanted behavior. A sensory diet should be initiated which provides your child with an appropriate amount and type of sensory input throughout the day to modulate their sensory experience. In other words, your child needs sensory meals and snacks periodically to meet their sensory needs before stimming becomes necessary. Often, deep pressure on the body provides needed proprioceptive inputs promoting calmness and security and lessening unwanted behaviors. This deep pressure can be provided by any or all of the following items.
The child should be taught to understand and regulate their own behavior. “How Does Your Engine Run? The Alert Program for Self-Regulation” by Mary Sue Williams, OTR and Sherry Shellenberger, OTR from TherapyWorks, Inc. is an excellent resource for teaching children about their 'engine speeds' and how to change their 'engine speeds'. "The Out of Sync Child" by Carol Stock Kranowitz, MA and "Too Loud Too Bright Too Fast Too Tight" by Sharon Heller, PhD are also extremely informative. In our family, I use the analogy of Tigger who has too much energy, Eeyore who has too little energy, and Winnie the Pooh who has just the right amount of energy. Then, I taught my children to recognize 'who' they were like at a given time of the day, and which activities were needed to get them to feel like Winnie or stay like Winnie. For example, my younger daughter is often Tigger. She often has random activity and can not concentrate well. She craves vestibular and proprioceptive inputs constantly. So, now we encourage her to jump on the mini-trampoline or bounce on a large pilates ball periodically throughout the day. She also plays around on the BOSU. This jumping and bouncing helps her to calm down and to concentrate better on her homeschool work. My son is often Eeyore in the mornings and even into the afternoon. He just can not get moving for 4-6 hours and is unable to concentrate well. We encourage him to shower first thing in the morning, empty the dishwasher, and feed the animals which wakes him up sufficiently to function in the morning. He usually does most of his homeschool work in the evening after 1-2 hours of afternoon exercise which helps him to concentrate much better. We also found that The Listening Program helped to modulate activity level for both my son and my daughter. Sound Health has also been beneficial to reduce toxic noise from the environment that causes undesireable behaviors.
We also have found that the Woggler provides tremendous vestibular and proprioceptive inputs to help modulate behavior. In addition, inappropriate stimming such as licking objects and smelling people should be redirected and substituted with a more socially-acceptable outlet such as sucking on hard candy or aromatherapy.
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