Autistic Stimming Defined 

I used to hand flap up until age 7, when I forced myself to quit due to social pressure. I haven’t been stimming regularly since, despite people becoming more accepting of stimming. Most people don’t believe me when I say this, they say that’s it’s impossible to stop stimming and I’m being ableist but it’s not like I WANT to suppress my stims.. it’s just how it is

Another form of stimming you didn’t mention in the video is visual stimming, my son does this type of stim quite often he finds interesting objects and brings them to eye level then move it from side to side following with his eyes or he will hold the object steady and move his head side to side while watching the object. Hope this helps ♥️

They’re so cute 🥰

I love braiding my hair. I have allwys done that. I also make werry high "heeeee" sounds wich are not that loud. But when i am very over stumulated my body gets tense. And i start wiggling my hands or even scratch myself. When this hapens i love bear huggies even though i hate being touched when i'm not over stimulated.

I rock back and forward

Late diagnosed adult AuDHD with a difficult childhood. I supressed my stimming as it irritated by parents. This caused it to manifest in nail biting and clicking my fingers, never been able to shift this, oh I also pick at my face in my sleep. Dancing is a great way to disguse a stim. I will dance absolutely anywhere, in front of anyone and not cares at all. I'm not a bad dancer either. 😂

I do a lot of stimming. Not just because of autism, but because of being blind as well. My stims include rocking back-and-forth, hand flapping, repeating some of my favorite words, phrases, or even songs, shaking my leg, and quite a few other things. I limit myself sometimes from stimming, Especially when it comes to my stimming due to my blindness. This is mainly because of complex trauma. But I find so much joy in stimming. I stim A lot when I’m doing things that I enjoy. People tell me not to limit myself, but I wonder if it can be OK to limit myself, just to prove certain things.

My favourite activity in the universe is to be listening to my favourite song with headphones in, and just hand flapping or pacing around or whatever. You're completely in your own head, it's so fun. And I'm always kind of sweaty and worn out afterwards, especially when i spend ages running back and forth, but it's an awesome experience!!! sometimes i put a song on loop just for the purpose of stimming. I'm pretty sad neurotypical people can't really experience it because it's awesome. Does anyone here look like me? ا

Again it is priceless that this little boy is this amazing and brave to use his voice to help others like him. It’s priceless to me to help understanding my own son and his struggles thank you so much.

I have Tourette’s Syndrome and I have this muscle clenching tic where I clench all of the muscles in my entire body and if I have been doing it a lot it hurts if I have been doing it a lot and I am in excruciating pain if I have been doing it a lot and I’m on a medication that helps it to help me to not do it as much as I used to and I am so thankful that the medicine is working because if I didn’t have it I would be in so much pain that I felt like I needed to go to the hospital

My 10 yr old son does the hand stim frequently! I see it as a happy, excited stim. He taps on things, taps on his chin and grabs a plastic spoon to tap with or tap his chest. I shared this video with my older sons to understand their younger brother’s stims because they try to stop him and get embarrassed! I tell them this is an autistic trait but now with your video they will understand! Thank you😊

Another great video! I am 63 and I still stim a lot! I stim when stressed, have anxiety or just because😀. In the work place I have my fidget spinner always handy. I used to suppress it but after my late Autism diagnoses, I stim when I need to. Videos like this are amazing and I thank you for posting them!

Thank you for this video. My dad and I fight all the time about my stimming. I have auditory processing disorder. My stims are non-violent. It’s nice to have someone realize I am not trying to do anything harmful or cruel or wicked

Very awesome video! Thank you so much for this info! I always wondered why I have need do this and how hard it is to control. My folks mistreated me for it, told my autism Shames the family name. I was conditioned to hide things or I’d be in a “world of hurt”. I love your videos how you sharing spreading awareness:) your channel means a lot to me

One stim I do which I didn't know was a stim until about 2 years ago is I make a "pstttt" sound that's sometimes followed but a high pitch squeal.

Gosh I wish I could take my stimming mask off in public like these boys!! ☺️ They look so free in their stimming!!

I have the same shirt as the kid in the thumbnail (the Kirby one)

How can you be this way and end up a successful independent adult? I would like to know to help

Great video. Short , sweet and too the point. My beautiful partner and her 2 children are Aspie . Our home is one huge stim fest and its actually wonderful to see the positive impact it has on them all. Its a kind of extra "language" they talk that gives me a lot more insight into how they are feeling and reacting to their here and now. It is very much encouraged in our home and has deepened my love for them all.

My son stims most of the time he’s awake but none of his are as big or open. His main stim is talking nonstop about his favorite subject. He cannot make himself stop and it is very calming for him. He also bites his nails and figertips, chews on things, and has finger posturing. As an adult, I bite my nails, pull my eyebrow hairs out 🤦‍♀️, and scroll my phone. I have zero control over any of them no matter how aware I am or want to stop.

The stimming comes from sensory overload and anxiety with energy that we have bottled up that others don’t like I get like that with loud sounds and bright lights

I have a student that we believe has autism and one of his stims is pacing

You said and explained it very correct thank you. It took society a while to accept and understand what is autism. Fear makes people behave not nivce

One thing that i remember in a conference talk is that we need to support each other and treat people the way we want to be treated. If someone is stimming I like to learn about what stimming is like sometimes i repeat things from time to time your videos are very well explained my friend.

A very good explaination including differences in general stimming, happy/excited stimming, and anxious (boredom) impeding meltdown stimming. First and second grade teachers would let me sit in the back of the classroom to look out the window and 'wiggle', they also picked up on my anxious/bored stimming when I would get my desk with a cast iron base bouncing - depending on the weather it was pound a handful of chalkboard erasures on an outside wall or the mystery note to the principal where the secretary would send me to the washroom, it didn't matter if I took 5 minutes or 20 minutes. Third grade teacher made school a nightmare for me, sit in front, yardstick slammed on my desk for stimming or lose of attention - ended up at a tutor for 'word usage issues', she found no problem with that but did help me develop strategies to deal with dyslexia. I developed a hate for school and determined to only do enough to pass each grade, I also developed a sleep issue of waking for an hour at 3am and during the day of climbing trees and staying 50 feet up for hours or hidden in a basement wall. I also developed/expanded on 'hidden' stims in particular cracking my toes and wiggling fingers under the desk. In my late 50's I faced my C-PTSD from another issue when Aspergers, ADHD (2e), ODD came up as consistent with my childhood and adult life besides dyslexia that had been identified before.

I was wearing headphones today in class cause the kids in my class talk alote sometimes and i might have autism and when im around noise i cant focus and im in year 7 im 11 British so yeah still waiting pls respond and im a girl hate making eye contact at school

I have autism and I do this occasionally mostly at school and stuff but yeah I can relate alot

How can you differentiate between stereotyped movements and tics and irrational movements?

My uncle listens to the same song over and over and over is that stimming he has asperger

Is skin picking a stim? That's what I do and I know it's harmful 😢

Also I like connor’s LoZ shirt. I played a splatfest in splatoon 3 that was LoZ themed. I was team courage

Every so often I flap my hands when I'm excited. Or I rub my hands together.

It took me my whole life to figure out why I had so much nerve irritation. I thought it was OCD for the longest time, but I couldn't figure out a pattern in terms of stress and mood, it just shifted randomly. It resulted in all kinds of tics and uncomfortable habits that I could only describe as 'needing to put pressure on nerves'. It's interesting to see this footage because I recognize myself so much in many of the movements I do to stim now, like this neurological energy HAS to get out or else it feels like maggots crawling in your limbs or head, as if there's a neurological wavelength that is out of whack, resulting in extra energy that needs out like spikes of solar flares. That's why stimming is so important, it's to get the neuro energy out in a way that's pleasant so it doesn't become unpleasant by being repressed to other places in the body. It caused me such a hard time sleeping during my life and sometimes still does, when I just can't find a comfortable position because the energy is wiggling around, unable to equilibrate. I have to twist my neck, hands and arms, even legs sometimes, to find a position that somehow counters the nerve signals. Stopping with repressing and unmasking my need to stim has helped so much!

I have autism too but I ride a bicycle just about everywhere and I have one that listens to music through earbuds or headphones so I do a lot of the hand moving around and stuff kind of like jamming what some people would call jamming out but someone told me the other day that it was called stimming because of my autism because I also do that with or without headphones and or riding my bicycle

Hi um! I’m the autistic parent of an autistic child, and I was looking for a video like this to show my child, do you or anyone else have a video like this geared towards educating autistic children rather than their parents? He loves watching educational videos, and has been curious about stimming recently

Teach self control, working on their impulse control, and mentor them to be self-aware. Acceptance in social situations is the least important reason to foster independence in your "able" children.

My parents said they’ve noticed I’ve stimmed a lot before and I don’t realize I’m doing and it’s been confirmed I don’t have autism but I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD and almost every doctor/specialist I’ve been to as said I have ADHD and if anyone sees my comment, I’m wondering if stimming can happen because of ADHD.

My sons 7 and will repeat the last word in his sentence over and over under his breath. When I say why do you sometimes repeat yourself under your breath , he said I don’t know. waiting for autism assessment now. I saw signs when he was just 1 but only just getting the support 🙏

I used to flap my arms and make noises. Now I no longer do that because I learned how to not make noises and flap my arms. I no longer do that anymore.

Thank you so so so much for posting this. This is so helpful for me to support and learn about my son who stims

My son is 7 years old. He is non verbal and generally very passive not but not very social. When he stims he looks very uncomfortable ( to the outsider looking in looks very inappropriate) he tends to sit down and grind his 2 legs together and contorts his hands near his pelvis. It's upsetting to watch because he looks so uncomfortable and begins sweating. It's so difficult to know what's going on in his mind because these stims come out of nowhere at times when you would imagine he is very happy and content.

I had a weird habit where I would clench and put my fists to my cheeks. Over the years, I moved it to my chin then to my chest then down to just grabbing my arms around the elbows. This would happen during good moments or moments of anticipation or fun stress like a sports game where the stakes are high . Now I barely do it and only note that it happens when I am in deep focus. Is this stimming?

I think I've been stimming in many ways throughout my life. I'm 31. I move my thumb in a circle quite a lot. Repeat lines from movies or songs over and over to myself. Doodle nonsense on paper lol

If your stimming didn’t get you fussed at…it wasn’t stimming.

I stimm all the time. Like for example I rock back and forth. And I chew on my diaper because it feels so good

You seem like a very well-informed parent. Your kids are lucky to have you! 🙏

Does tapping a pen on the table or quickly slap your own cheeks stimming?

Oh my god, your kid does the same stim as me, from 35-40 seconds in the video! I've never seen someone else do the same one I always do - rubbing the back of my fists against my face!

Literally me when I try and quit smoking cigarettes lol. It's fkd.

I Rock back forward for me I flap my hands talk to me myself jump up and down or I a pace back forward i calm down with music or movie try not hit me with my hand it feel like I am harm myself I accept my myself ❤❤❤❤❤😊

I get Dr Oyalo herbs supplements and it has been helpful on my child autism spectrum. All traits are gone with her speech and focus and attention is good to talk about.

I’m autistic and I stim by touching my hair.

Nail biting… to the point of severe bleeding sometimes. It’s done subconsciously so it’s really difficult to stop.

I don’t stim much, I don’t have meltdowns and not much feels different tbh idk if I’m autistic

I used to Chew on pencils.I'm glad I broke that habit

My most common stims are leg shaking, nail/skin biting, and “locking” into a weird limb or body position

My stims vary from day to day.....I tend to rock and flap, and I also love to sing! SpongeBob quotes are my main go to as of late.....

Really Appreciate your effort for explaining it .

i have this one kid in my class he is very high up on the spectram what should i do to calm him when he stims ........... he is also bald

Is clearing your throat repetitively something to do with autism? As I do that quite a lot

It feels good, I masked it for a while, but trauma brought it back.

My son is 2 and a half and just recently got his ASD diagnosis, but I've noticed since he was about 18 months, especially because he still does a lot of the same stims He does A LOT of verbal stimming like all kinds of sounds some cute and some not so much I like when he does his little dolphin/rapter sounds, but lately he does a lot of screeching He mostly does it when he's needs to go run around so usually I take him outside but there have been times where it was very inconvenient like in stores/restaurants He's 100% non agressive though and he loves lights and music and people so he's definitely one that enjoys lots of stimulation or he makes his own lol

When i listen to music and starts walk everywhere around the house and my family think i am weird do you think 🤔 i have autism 😅

I stim a lot of the time I jump because I am happy or excited

The only ones i know of in myself is bouncing my legs, grabbing at my hair and closing my right eye. I can control them all by the way

I grew up in a catholic house hold being autistic was frowned apon and had the stimming beat out of me it was the sign of the devil

My daughter is with wire or strings. She screams while moving it around

some stims I don't think about mainly if i make more noise to drown out excess sound

Im autistic and stim when im comfortable but i dont at school cause im nervous in school

Does it mean something or is it just random? In other words what is happening on the other side in the kids imagination

Stimming for me usually comes in the forms of rocking, shaking my head side to side, clasping my hands together, hand flapping, squeezing the sides of my head, teeth grinding, flicking my tongue against my teeth, chewing on chew toys, pens or pencils, making occasional vocalizations, moving my leg side to side while sitting, shutting my eyes tight and essentially clenching my face, and rubbing my chin like a supervillain. People may give me odd looks for stimming in public, but I don't mask because I don't care about pleasing those kinds of people, and I know those who care about me will always accept me. If you ask me, expecting someone to mask their disability for your comfort is inherently selfish, and if someone stims or tics, it's none of your business and it's best to just leave it be because trying to suppress these things is way more uncomfortable than witnessing them.

My stimming is the same as Ian and Connor. When I sit I rock back and forth and in other situations I make my hands in to a sort of claw and open and close the claw.

I have CP and I shake my head for stemming

i didnt realize i stimmed so much. im not diagnosed with anything mostly bc my parents hate labels. ive always sucked on my bottom lip its seen in a lot of young photos of me as a child (am 21 now). Lip sucking is usually paired with hair pulling/playing. i. i constantly rub my fingers on my nose or hold them there like im smelling them (weird ik). i pull on my septum or my top lip with my fingers. i rub my toes together or my lege or my finger tips. Me and my younger sister communicate in our own little language of squaks like a dino or bird.i hum to myself or make popping noises with my lips.. I tend to walk with "dino hands" as my mum would say. i rock back and forth a lot. these actions arent limited to when im bored or stressed, i do them everyday all day. i didnt know i was stimming i thought it was normal fidgeting.

With year my sin improved ...He run his channel and programming online...But no social connection for now...He is my Wikipedia and more.Mostly his food choices is very poor becoming more older...We managing..I can hide veggies under crust Pizza antmore😅....But we take great supplements..Thank you for your info and helpful hints 🙏

Some of my more common stims are snapping my fingers, popping my fingers, grunting under my breath, and tapping my fingers. Before I was diagnosed with ASD I rocked back and forth a lot. My parents would tell me to stop so by the time I was diagnosed that stim kind of went away. Lately I've noticed I have gotten into rocking back and forth a lot. My parents recently bought a rocking chair and I realize that I spend quite a bit of time on the chair rocking. I use singing and talking as a stim also. I love your videos, they help educate me on autism different from my own and help me gain perspective. Keep making them!

I just called it tweaking

0:38 that women in the back was not having it

My cousin is autistic. He doesn’t stand but how do you know if he is autistic? He was diagnosed when he was young but we don’t know he doesn’t stand well he does sometimes.

You know what I understand about autistic I don’t know cause I have one cousin that can talk well that’s what the other one she cannot speak and I wonder why she flaps her hands and everything I wonder wonder wonder😊

Stimming while listening to music is the best feeling ever

Walking around in circles

Yo He Got a Kirby Shirt.

Very good!! Thank you 🙏

Great video, thank you! Mother of 4 2 of them are autistic and they stim alot😊

Thank you as always for a very helpful insightful video

Hi Mr Rob, you have amazing boys. Do you know the percentage of having a second child being autistic like the first child? Do you know if the percentage goes up with each child or is it random? Thanks a lot.

My 9 year old Stems when he’s excited or happy and we embrace it and don’t ask him to stop. I’ve educated friends and family about it.

I have autism and ADHD

Thank you for this. My son is very similar to your little boy. He does something very similar to your sons stimming where he pushed really hard against his little face and he seems to exert a lot of force so I worry its hurting him, but I guess I will leave him be until I see physical marks. Thank you again so much for this.

Definitely even mild can unfortunately lead to harmful stimming. Working professionally most don't notice but I bite my finger very similar to Allister.

I used to Stim a lot when I was a kid by making a bunch of humming sounds and a bunch of high pitch sounds but I also had weird finger movements and some hand flapping. Now I don’t really stim as much as I used to.

I stim omg I played with my hair and spider finger walking and flapping my hands when I was primary before I got ehcp in August time srry for a bit information

Hi, my son twirls his wrists and does spider legs movements with his fingers when he sees anything moving. He’s 20 months but doesn’t talk yet, he can say mam, dad and baba, are any of your sons non verbal? And do you think my son will talk eventually?

I stim a lot, but there are certain stims I’m not comfortable with doing, even in private. It’s not that I purposefully force myself not to do them, but I just subconsciously feel like I can’t do them, and don’t let myself.

When my uncle (my dad’s brother) was living with me and my family for a while there where times when he would go outside and walk back and forth. My dad told him to stop because he was setting the cameras off when he was walking back and forth. When he moved out of our house I was asking my dad about it. He said he’s been doing that since he was born.

I’ve got autism when I’m excited I clap and cross my fingers

When I have a lot of energy that's when I start stimming tons especially during the school hours ( 7am - 2pm )

This was very interesting to watch. Especially the part about everyone doing it to various degrees such as tapping a pencil or bouncing their knees when feeling impatient. I had my thyroid removed due to cancerous nodules, and the replacement dose of thyroid I take can often induce severe anxiety. Rocking back and forth is very calming and distracts me from the unpleasant physical sensations of the anxiety. Even now, when adjusting the dosage of medication, I often have prolonged bouts of anxiety and I find myself not just rocking back and forth, but wiggling my feet , bouncing my knees etc. Anything to distract my brain from the misery of anxiety. Would you say that your kids experience general anxiety and use stimming as a way to relieve it like I do, or do they normally feel quite relaxed and the urge to stim is unconscious, and by not doing it THEN they start to feel anxiety? I wonder if in autism the urge to use stimming behavior comes before, or after, feeling anxious.

I. Do the same thing I. Am autistic I got diagnosed at age 5 of 2008 I'm 20 years old now