So..over the years.. has your son JUST continued to spin exclusively when stimming or does it evolve into another stimming activity?

Russell's first stimming thing was spinning(twirling) himself.. he did that for a couple years... then it evolved into spinning toys... and it keeps evolving into the newest CONSTANT 24/7 stim. Just wondering if your son does the same.

I have to say... the spinning of toys.. was THE MOST upsetting to watch by far. Russell, like kids that stim, get "high" off of it and get so far into their own little world... but the spinning of toys was unreal!!! OMG... he got WAYYYY too much "into" the spinning and when you stopped and redirected him he had such huge meltdowns. He'd run all over the house and find things to spin.. run to this area of our apartment we lived in at the time (the entrance way had tile LOL) and spin and spin and if stopped him, he couldn't find a toy to spin or it didn't spin to his liking... it was AWFUL to see... well.. the whole thing just never set well with me.

So... I am SO glad that stimming phase is over LOL. Currently we are into holding a ball in one hand and dangling and/or chewing a string together. HAS to have both usually lately.. that is his latest stim behavior

Does your son have tics or grimmaces? Russell does... above and beyond the stimming. Some of this is due to his vision issues... but he has some "tics" too. His newest thing is doing ONE HIT to his head. Sometimes it's out of frusteration (lack of communication)... and a stimming thing.. sometimes it's involuntary and a tic.... This is also not fun to watch LOL

Before Russell was DX'd with Autism.. I would have bet the farm he had Tourette's actually because he had all the signs of that too. And I have other others ask me if he has it. It's funny how some of this stuff truly does cross over.

A.

Mikey would spin anything that was round... a coin, a plate, it was amazing because he has very poor fine motor control but he could spin anything. He also loved to make himself dizzy. He would love for me to spin him around and he would spin himself around until he fell over. Now he likes to shake towels. It's funny watching him check each towel, give it an experimental shake, until he finds the one that is just right to shake. He likes big bath towels. If he can't find just the right towel he has a meltdown. I have to calm him down and then take him around the house looking for just that right towel. We hate to give in to the stimming but sometimes it seems that the stimming is the only thing that calms him down. It's as if he is shedding the stresses of the day by stimming.

I have met one kid with DS who also had a diagnosis of Tourettes. And to me (having a son who DOES have Tourette Syndrome, and lots of family members who tic, including myself) It doesn't look ANYHTHING like TS! I looks more "stimmy", and the ones that don't, there aren't enough components to qualify them under a true TS diagnosis.

And yes, because I have one with TS, I watch Angela very closely. (as it is hereditary). She does some things that are definetly tics, and I would LOVE to be able to say she has Coporalia, (the yelling out of words) as it would be a good excuse for her swearing! ROFL

Interesting Leah!

I have a friend that works in a facility for DD adults and she even said Russell looks like he has Tourette's. And I am sure if he could.. he'd curse at me! LOL

A.

Did any of you see the special on last night about Autism? It was only a 1/2 hour program but it was very good. I don't even know what channel it was on, but I was flipping through and found it. Amazing how therapy helps children with Autism.

And Tom I'm pretty sure Noah doesn't have autism, but man does he like to spin himself around as well. Funny to watch cause he gets so dizzy and usually falls down, but that never stops him.

Hannah spins around alot

and the other thing she does is if we have any towels or clothes on our radiators she likes taking them off and flapping them about

we had a funny incident where we were at someones house and she went upstairs and came down 10mins later flapping the persons whose house we were at red knickers ( of which there weren't much to them!! )

very embarressing