Is this a stim

[Guest guest]

I agree to a certain extent. With my son, though, I could see a

definate

difference between just plain goofy behavior of a young child and

stimmy

behavior. When he got stimmy, he got this intense look in his eyes

and shut

out everything else. Sometimes he even would distort his mouth or

stick his

tongue out in concentration. I remember the first time he started

doing it

was when he was about a year old and we were at the beach in a

condo. He

was crawling as fast as he could, with his head down, mouth open,

back and

forth, back and forth, like a caged animal. I came into the bedroom

to make

the bed and he didn't even know I was there. I thought it was pretty

weird

and so I just watched him without interfering. Then I made the bed,

picked

up the room, and went out of the room. He never knew I was there. I

knew

something was definately strange about that at the time. Also, when

I

would try to redirect him he would get very upset if I had allowed

him to

really get into it. And, it wasn't the normal kind of upset that

kids have

when you don't let them do what they want, it was a heartbreaking

cry, like

a physical pain. It's hard to describe. I know that there are

different

schools of thought on whether to let them stim or not. Personally, I

don't

think that we should let them do it when it clearly becomes this

entrancing

kind of behavior. I found that if I had him switch gears before he

really

got stuck in it, it was much easier. Now, he very rarely stims and

when he

does it looks pretty appropriate for his age, and he doesn't seem to

get as

stuck in the activity like he used to.

Randee

Re: Is this a stim?

> Hi ladies,

> I have been reading your posts. I was wondering when we were all

young

like

> our children are, I imagine we all did these things,(I know I did)

and we

and

> our parents never thought a thing about it. We were just enjoying

being

> kids. At times it seems like everything our children do today is

analyzed

as

> stemming or inappropriate play. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, maybe

they

are

> just being kids, like we were. Just my 2 cents.

> CASSIE

>

>

>