Stimming, Regulation, and Tics
- toddlerswithtism
- Nov 30, 2023
- 6 min read
✨️ Stimming ✨️
Stimming or Self-stimulation refers to self-soothing, mostly unconscious repetitive sounds or movements. Almost everyone stims, usually without even realizing it (twirling hair, clicking a pen, tapping or biting your nails). For people with conditions like autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) stimming may be even harder for them to control or be conscious of.
✨️ Some Examples of Stimming: - Hand/arm flapping - Spinning/twirling - Rocking - Pacing - Verbal repetitive sounds - Humming - Blinking - Side eye (looking at things out the side of the eye, usually up close) - Repeating words or phrases (echolalia) - Flicking things - Covering ears - Spinning/tapping things - Lip licking - Touching/rubbing things - Twirling/chewing hair
✨️ Here are some different types of stims.
🤚 Tactile Stimming (sense of touch): - such as skin rubbing - hand moving, - tapping
🏃♂️ Vestibular Stimming (sense of movement and balance): - pacing - rocking - jumping/bouncing - spinning in circles - running
👁 Visual Stimming (sense of sight): - staring or gazing at objects (ceiling fans or lights) - repetitive blinking - turning lights on and off - moving fingers in front of the eyes - hand-flapping - eye tracking - peering from the corners of the eyes - object placement (lining up or stacking objects)
👃Olfactory or Taste Stimming (sense of smell and taste); - smelling objects or people - licking objects - putting objects in the mouth
🗣 Vocal Stimming (making sounds with your mouth or breath): - verbal noises - humming - shrieking - repeating words or phrases, including from books, movies, or echoing someone else 👂 Auditory Stimming (related to vocal stimming): - tapping tables, ears, or other objects - snapping fingers - vocal sounds like growling or humming - repetitive speech
🚶Proprioceptive Stimming: - hand flapping - rocking back and forth - lining up toys - staring at spinning objects - humming or making other repetitive noises
✨️ Is stimming harmful?
An autistic person may use stimming to self regulate when overstimulated or distressed, but people also stim when excited or happy. Some stimming behaviors can cause self-injury and may be alarming to others. If stims have the potential to be harmful, that person may need help managing them.
✨️ Stims that may need to be managed to prevent harm include: - excessive self-rubbing - excessive scratching - excessive nail-biting - hand/finger biting - head-banging - slapping or hitting - chewing or biting inedible hard or toxic items
✨️ Benefits of stimming!
- Overstimulation: if someone is hypersensitive, stimming can block out excessive sensory input - Under-stimulation: if someone is hyposensitive, stimming can provide necessary stimulation
- Emotional Regulation: stimming can help manage emotions (both positive and negative)
- Pain Reduction: stimming may be used as a way to distract from physical or emotional discomfort and pain
✨️ Manage Stimming Typically, stimming isn't harmful and is, in fact, helping a need to he met. So usually, there is no reason to stop someone from stimming. If the stim is dangerous or impeding on their abilities, then that behavior may need to be managed.
🔑 The key is to identify the triggers that cause dangerous stimming behaviors and avoid them if suitable. If large crowds are a trigger, try to keep to less crowded environments when possible or provide them with comfort items, headphones, and maybe sun glasses. If interpersonal interactions are triggering dangerous stimming behavior, social situation training may help them manage their behaviors. Certain behavioral or occupational therapies may help autistic people reduce or stop stimming behaviors. Speaking with a qualified healthcare professional will be helpful in working out what recommendations are most appropriate.
⭐️ Emotional Dysregulation (ED) & Sensory Dysregulation ⭐️
Autistic children may need support to recognize, interpret, and respond appropriately to emotions. Emotional dysregulation (ED), defined as a deficit in the ability to monitor and modulate the valence, intensity, and expression of emotions, is typically expressed with mood instability, irritability, meltdowns, and self-harm in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Sensory regulation, or sensory integration, are all terms that refer to a child’s ability to regulate and process the stimuli they constantly receive from their environment and their own body. Sensory dysregulation, much like emotional dysregulation, feels uncontrollable. Like something is “wrong” and a child may not know what is causing them to feel “off”, or how to solve the problem. Sensory dysregulation may look and feel similar to emotional or behavioral dysregulation, which can lead to meltdowns.
⭐️ Types of Regulation
👨👦Co-regulation: Co-regulation means your child needs YOU to help them regulate their emotions. When they’re upset, you need to soothe them and help them calm down. At this stage, they can not use healthy coping strategies on their own. Most kids with autism are dependent upon mutual or co-regulation, some, if not all, the time. Does your child come to you when they need help regulating? Or, do you need to recognize behavioral cues and be proactive?
🙆 Self-regulation: Self-regulation consists of a set of skills and/or techniques that can help one to stay in control of their emotions and behaviors.
Regulation Tips:
⭐️ The adults in the child’s environment need to stay calm. - If we, as adults, are not able to self regulate and model that, we aren’t going to be able to teach the child to do so. Staying calm as an adult is also important during the co-regulation phase. You always hear that children can feel someone’s “vibe”. This is so true when it comes to co-regulation and self-regulation of emotions! A child can tell when we are stressed, upset, and frustrated. So, the best thing we can do is check in with ourselves first to make sure we are modeling deep breathing and other self-regulatory strategies. An escalated adult cannot calm an escalated child down.
⭐️ As an adult, you should be modeling, prompting, and reinforcing the self-regulatory strategies. - This was touched on above. In practice, it may look like: modeling deep breaths next to the child without asking or requiring them to participate. Their breathing may eventually sync up with yours if you keep doing it. This is an example of co-regulation. Cuddles and hugs when children are sad, upset, or overwhelmed are also forms of co-regulation. Remember that preschool children will need different levels of co-regulation as they move toward their own self-regulation of emotions.
⭐️ Directly teaching emotions can be especially helpful. - Identifying emotions can be a difficult skill for children with autism. Start teaching basic emotions by using flashcards with line drawings or clipart pictures of emotions. Sometimes, it is best to start with: happy, sad, and mad. Then, you can move on to making faces in the mirror together, depicting those emotions. Some other fun activities include drawing faces with the emotions on paper or on a small whiteboard, as well as making the faces using playdough. Once your child understands basic emotions, be sure to start pointing them out in real situations. For example, if a child is crying at the grocery store, you might say “they feel sad”. Understanding emotions can be a helpful piece in learning how to self regulate emotions.
⭐️ Simplify language during times of dysregulation. - When a child’s body and mind are stressed and dysregulated, it is harder for them to access their “thinking” skills. It is very important to simplify the language we use when talking to children when they are experiencing dysregulation. Reduce the number of directions given and be sure to speak in a calmer, quieter tone. This helps with the co-regulation aspect mentioned above.
⭐️ Use visual supports. - Visual supports are one of the best strategies that you can use to help children move from co-regulation to self-regulation of emotions. An example of this may be using visual support to teach and encourage deep breathing. You practice this deep breathing together during a calm, regulated state so that they will be able to access that skill more automatically during a period of dysregulation. For example, “smell the flower" or "blow out the candle” (see below). The same goes for teaching a calming sequence. Practice a calming sequence several times each day, while in a regulated calm state. Then, it will be easier for the child to access that skill when they are becoming dysregulated.
🌟 Is it a Stim or a Tic 🌟
Stimming behaviors can look like tics. It can be very difficult to tell the difference between a stim and a tic. Here are some tips to help: - if your child is able to vocalize, try to understand how they feel when they are doing a certain behavior - try to determine if they are doing it because they want to or are they compelled to and do not really have control of it Tics are repetitive movements, but unlike stims, they are involuntary, anticipated, and not particularly pleasurable. Tics are typically features of Tourette syndrome (TS) and other Tic disorders (TD).
🌟 Motor Tics Simple motor tics involve a single muscle group. Complex motor tics usually involve more than one muscle group and can even look like the person is doing the tic on purpose. Simple motor tics: - nose wrinkling - head twitching - eye blinking - lip biting - facial grimacing - shoulder shrugging Complex motor tics: - kicking - skipping - jumping - mimicking movements by others - smelling objects
🌟Vocal Tics Simple vocal tics involve one simple sound. Complex vocal tics involve more meaningful speech (like words). Simple vocal tics : - coughing - throat clearing - grunting - sniffing - barking - hissing Complex vocal tics: - repeating words/phrases - animal sounds - calling out - yelling
🔍 External links to further your research:
https://hes-extraordinary.com/self-regulation-strategieshttps://autismlittlelearners.com/self-regulation-of-emotions/
Comments