Relates to the stim question below | Autism PDD

This is so funny the first eval my son had was by the speech therapist , she had the usual bag of toys and also rubber bouncy balls and Nick picked them up one in each hand and acted like he was banging them together but they never touched....something he had always done at home and she pointed out to me that this was hand flapping a signature sign of autism! I had no clue I just thought he was trying to bang things together!!!! Your right there is so much to learn and sort out from normal behavior and autistic behaviors!!!!Just wanted to share my story! Thanks for listening

Amber,
That's funny about Blues Clues. That is all Gavin would watch from
18 months to 3 yrs old and when his therapist first pointed out the
hand flapping I told her I thought it was just him acting out the hand
motions to the blues clues song. I think sometimes he was just
doing that, but there was some true hand flapping too in hindsight.
KarenThere are other stim's to look for. Rocking back and forth, twirling in chairs and obessions with fans. Luke, too, is a flapper!

The odd thing is that he never flapped until about 3&1/2 weeks ago ... after he was dx'd as autistic. Prior to that, he was very good at hand clapping (on command or when he was pleased). Now I can't get him to clap -- no matter how funny and entertaining I try to be!

It's as if he heard his dx then decided he could 'let it all hang out'!!

Now I try NOT to flap my hands, like if I let him wtach the Wiggles and they do that song "get ready to wiggle ... wiggle your hands up high in the sky" I don't want to do it with him be/c I don't want him to flap! DARN those Wiggles!!

Kellie

LOL! I Hear ya! And Aiden just started this odd behavior recently too. I think. I don't know like I said haven't heard him or seen him clap in the last couple mths. Never thought about it until today. And then he wouldn't clap! Does this mean anything? DOES ANYTHING MEAN ANYTHING! lol. This eval process (and my own brain) is making me nuts! But I'm keeping humor when I can

Amber

Ok so I hear about hand flapping. Now my son does this sometimes when really excited or even sometimes when frustrated, but usually only with one hand, a few times w/ both hands. I never figured that was anything, as I know i've shook my hands and even jumped up and down when really excited or maybe freaked out about something lol. How in the world do we distinguish between regular behavior and spectrum behavior sometimes? I mean some things I realize can be obvious, but unless the child is severe many things are confusing as to their nature. Like I said even I've flapped lol. If anything Aiden is moderate pdd or mild autistic at this time at least, and it makes things even harder to figure out I feel. Should I then note the hand flapping as a possible stim?

Amber

Amber,
I'm sorry to keep saying this, but you sound just like I did when my
son was that age! I was so frustrated about the hand flapping/
stimming thing too. My therapists would say he was flapping his
hands, but to me it was just a 2 yr old getting excited. When they are
that young it is hard to tell. He was my first so I didn't realize it was
anything odd until his developmental therapist pointed it out. I never
considered it a stim behavior until the last couple of months. I think
I now see it as that because I have an 18 month old and as I think
back to Gavin at that age he did a lot more stimming than I realized.
Your son is still young so I think you can call it a possible stim, but it
might also just be 2 yr old excitement. You can't figure it all out
today.
Karen

I thought the same thing about the flapping as well. I though he just hadn't figured out how to clap exactly..getting his hands to meet together, He really only does it when he is excited. But now I see it as more of a stim, when I really started to pay attention to when and how and why he did it.

It is so hard to figure out what is normal and what is not. Owen is my first as well.

OH! What you said about clapping hands reminds me of something. You know my son always used to clap his hands when he saw it on tv or when he asked him to clap his hands. Well I haven't seen him do it in mths I realized today. So I put on one of his fav movies called Blues Clues Musical (used to be one of the only things he would watch when younger) and he always used to clap at the spot where they are clapping to the rhythm. So I started saying "clap aidne." Well he started clapping, but wouldn't touch his hands together. So he kept clapping off and on but no sound emerged as he never actually touched his hands together. Thought that was odd as I've never seen that before. He's also been back to his repetative play again this morning, and after I was saying to hubby last night that he's been doing it less the last week and he's been improving so much. Was the last week just a calm spot in the storm?

Amber