AlamogordoTownNews.com - Mental Health Awareness - Stimming facts and what you should know…

Self-stimulatory behaviors (also called “STIMMING”) are things your child does to get extra sensory input when he needs it, such as hand flapping, rocking, biting himself, head-banging, or scratching himself. Stimming is not just seen in children.

These behaviors are caused by unmet SENSORY NEEDS and can be found in all different types of children and adults, young and older, even those WITHOUT disorders, in fact stimming is done by ANYONE AND EVERYONE.

IN FACT, adults often engage in self-stimulatory behaviors. We have just found socially acceptable ways of doing them so that no one thinks we’re crazy.

FOR EXAMPLE- when we have to sit in a long meeting,

1)our foot starts shaking,

2)We doodle on paper,

3)We take out a piece of gum to chew, or

4)We do nail biting or start playing with an object like pen in our hand or anything

All of these things are because We have been sitting without much sensory input for too long and our body is asking to move. If you saw me at a meeting, you wouldn’t think anything of it because we all do little things like that.

However, children don’t know how to get those needs met in socially acceptable ways so they tend to engage in self-stimulatory behaviors that are less common in adults, such as hand flapping, rocking, etc.

These behaviors tell us that the child is not getting the appropriate sensory input that he needs at that time.

It could be that he just needs to get up and move. Or, it could mean that his sensory processing mechanisms are confused and aren’t receiving signals the way they should be. If your child shows a lot of self-stimulatory behaviors, you may want to look into finding help for your child’s sensory processing needs.

SHOULD WE STOP STIMMING- NO, Never until and unless it’s self injurious or harm to others.

In such scenarios you can always replace the behavior  which can meet there sensory need and will not be injurious to self or others.

This come with lots of trial and error and practice where you have to keenly observe the stimming behaviour, the sensory need and positive replacement technique.

Few of them are mention here which can be beneficial.

To positivity in mental health. 

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