What Is Stimming in Autism,Various Types of Sensory Issues

Repetitive body movements or repetitive movement of objects is referred to as self-stimulatory behavior and abbreviated to stimming. Such ‘Stimming’ or self-stimulatory behaviour is common in children and teenagers with autism.

Stimming is a behavior quality typically of autistic people who employ it as a coping mechanism for particular emotions. Some common examples are hand-flapping, clapping, rocking, excessive or hard blinking, pacing, head banging, repeating noises or words, snapping fingers and spinning objects.

Autistic people may stim occasionally or constantly in response to emotions such as excitement, happiness, boredom, stress, fear, and anxiety. They may also stim during times when they are feeling overwhelmed.

They use stimming to manipulate their environment to produce stimulation or because they have trouble with imagination and creativity and can’t think of other things to do, like pretend play.

The amount and type of stimming varies a lot from child to child. For example, some children just have mild hand mannerisms, whereas others spend a lot of time stimming.

Stimming is almost always present in people on the autism spectrum but does not necessarily indicate its presence. The biggest difference between autistic and non-autistic stimming is the type of stim and the quantity of stimming.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, stimming behaviour is described as "stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms" and listed as one of the symptoms of autism.

Types of stimming and Sensory Issues

Everybody stims in some way at a certain point of time. It’s not always clear to others. Examples of stimming and sensory issues include the following:

1. Auditory stimming:
   
   It is repeating lines from television show and uses sense of hearing and sound. It may include behaviors such as:
   • vocal sounds, such as humming, grunting, or high-pitched shrieking
   • tapping on objects or ears, covering and uncovering ears, and finger-snapping
   • repetitive speech, such as repeating song lyrics, book sentences, or movie lines
2. Tactile stimming:
   
   
   It is rubbing fingers against the floor and uses the sense of touch. It may include behaviors such as:
   • skin-rubbing or scratching, with the hands or objects
   • hand movements, such as opening and closing one’s fists
   • finger-tapping
3. Visual stimming:
   
   
   It is the staring out of the corners of one’s eyes and uses sense of sight. It may include repetitive behaviors such as:
   • staring or gazing at objects, such as ceiling fans or lights
   • repetitive blinking or turning lights on and off
   • moving fingers in front of the eyes
   • hand-flapping
   • eye tracking or peering from the corners of the eyes
   • object placement, such as lining up objects
4. Vestibular stimming:
   
   
   It involves the spinning of objects and uses a person’s sense of movement and balance. It may include repetitive behaviors such as:
   • rocking front to back or side to side
   • spinning
   • jumping
   • pacing
5. Taste (olfactory) stimming:
   
   
   It is the licking of objects and uses sense of smell and taste. They may include repetitive behaviors such as:
   • sniffing or smelling people or objects
   • licking
   • tasting objects by placing them in the mouth

Some stimming behaviours may be hazardous. Other repetitive behaviors can cause physical harm to the patient and mostly lead to sensory issues. These behaviors are:

With or without autism, there’s a lot of variation in how often stimming occurs from person to person. Stimming involves both sensory and motor functions. Insufficiencies in these sensorimotor functions can result in stimming behaviours produced by the person as a controllable response.

Stopping one stim may result in the child replacing it with a worse behaviour. While it is difficult to stop stimming entirely, there are several ways and means to reduce time spent stimming and create safer stimming habits for an individual.

Managing the sensory and emotional environment while increasing the amount of daily exercise can increase personal comfort levels of the person, which may reduce the amount of time spent stimming. Objects such as puzzles, fidget spinners, stress and fidget toys can also be used to help instill safe stimming habits.