Minimizing visual stimming - thoughts

[Guest guest]

Hello!

Our kid is 2yrs 2mos old right now and has been diagnosed with HFA about 4

months back. He has been receiving a combination of group and 1-1 sessions using

TEACCH (4hrs grp + 2 1-1 sessions) for the past 3 months. He started using

single words right around his 2nd birthday timeframe. Over the past couple of

months, his language has emerged very well and he now has a lot of words in his

vocabulary (or their intonations). He understands most of the single step

directions as well. A major problem we have with him is stimming with any object

that is circular in shape - he tries to spin/roll it and brings his eyes close

to the object. Until about 3 mos back or so, he used to participate well with

any play involving a ball. Ever since visual stimming became more obvious (in

the last 2 mos), he would use the ball to spin, slide or roll it so he could

watch. As a result, his interactive play especially with a ball has now become

solitary play. When we throw a ball towards him, he

would catch it and then run to a part of the room where he could stim with it.

Over the past one week, it seems like his desperation to stim when he sees a

ball has reached new heights - he would stop whatever he is doing to go get the

ball - of course, all this when he sees a ball in the vicinity. He wouldn't ask

for the ball specifically when it's not around him.

We have been trying to employ some of the floortime techniques to involve

ourselves and do a back and forth with the ball. The minute we get the ball he

goes into a tantrum mode now- this behavior has gone up over the past couple of

weeks. He would take the ball and constantly watch for our presence when he

plays. We used a technique from one of our O.T sessions whereby he would throw

the ball on a certain target in the room by taking turns.(we used to have icons

on the wall ) - he tolerated well with that for couple of days and now he cannot

stand seeing us with the ball

There are several schools of thought on whether to allow the kid to stim or not.

Personally, we don't stop him right away - we wait for couple of minutes to see

if he would allow us into the play. If not, we take the object away. He would

throw a tantrum and we try to redirect him to something else. He was easily

redirectable as of two or three weeks back but now the tantrum goes on for 10 or

15mins. As a result, we limited his play with the ball . Also, we stop all

inappropriate use of objects as 'spin-toys'.

We're moving him to a more intensive ABA program that would start in the next

couple of weeks (upto 25hrs at home).

I'm looking for some thoughts from other parents/professionals who have dealt

with similar stimming behavior successfully.

-- NP

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