Ethan still lays down, or puts his head on the table and runs trains back and forth in front of his eyes. He has done this as long as I can remember. I'm not sure if it is a stim. I think he loves to watch the wheels turn. He used to do this exclusively when he was younger, now just occasionally throughout the day. Maybe it calms him down. Hopefully someone else will know more. I don't understand.
I've seen a lot of messages titled "Is this a stim?"
What does it matter what something is called? "Stim" doesn't mean anything about why a person is doing something or whether what a person is doing is okay or not, so why does it matter?
My 23 month old (not dx'd but has speech delay) is doing something and I'm not sure if it is a stim. He lays down and plays with his trains. He puts his head all the way down to the floor. He does this while they are on the track and also on the floor, he runs them all over. He plays appropriately with them ruuning them under the furniture, around the room, on the track. He plays appropriately with all other toys as well.
What do you think, astim or just playing? I layed down and looked at his train and it looks really cool from that angle! He is easily distracted from this type of play and does it for 15 mins to 1 hour per day on and off throughout the day (not all at one time)
Gtto,
Camille is obviously concerned about her child because he already has a speech delay. She just wants to know if his behavior is Stim like probably so that she can figure out if he may possibly be somewhere on the spectrum also. Asking whether something is a stim or not tells me that the person is unsure whether it is...It's just a question. No one has said that it matters one way or another.....but it might matter if he is showing enough symptoms that he needs to be completely evaluated. That is where it would matter. IF a child needs to be evaluated. If she already has one child on the spectrum maybe she just wants to make sure that her other child is getting everything he needs also.
Catmille,
Sounds like a very unique way to play. I agree that he is experiencing the trains visually from a different perspective. Makes me think he is very intellegent. I don't know if it is stimming though.
Karrie
I usually totally agree with gtto but here I think there is a difference
My son gets down to the level of all of his toys - either on the floor or table. He must love the angle and find it fascinating. I don't stop him, but I do encourage looking at things from others angles, just to shake things up a little.
My son does the same thing and it is a stim for him. He would do it ALL DAY unless he was redirected. He's actually watching the wheels turn on his trains. He will do the same action with anything with wheels on it.Catmille,
My son does this very same thing. We are still waiting for him to be diagnosed. He will line his cars up on the floor and then put his face all the way to the floor to play and look at them. He will roll the cars on the floor and lie there looking at them. He will also line his cars up on our dining room table and then he will walk very close to the table at eye level all up and down the table checking out the formation I'm guessing.
To answer your question, I do not know if this is a stim either but I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.
Karman
He may be doing this to simulate the angle in which he sees trains in real life. When I used to build town models and play with my cars in them I would almost always put my head on or near the ground to get a feel for what the town and cars would look like if they were real (consider that to a small child the angle in which they view a real vehicle is very similar to that of viewing a toy from floor level). I always based my play on what I saw in real life, so when I would play I would do everything I could to make my created environment look as life-like as I could, and that included seeing it from the correct angle.