This is really an example of stimming?

[Anonymous]

I did not want to pull the other thread off-topic, so I cut and pasted this here:

He engages in self-stimulating activities (often playing out something he saw on TV)


My son, 7, does not have any Dx but he's always been a little atypical and quirky. I try to keep abreast of current thinking on specific SN topics, keep an open mind, and am willing to revisit his status at any time.

With that in mind .... is re-enacting the plot of a beloved TV show really "self-stimming" in the manner of humming, flapping, etc.? My kid has used TV shows as inspiration for his free play since he was 2.5 y.o. and Diego was chasing condors in the rainforest ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not want to pull the other thread off-topic, so I cut and pasted this here:

He engages in self-stimulating activities (often playing out something he saw on TV)


My son, 7, does not have any Dx but he's always been a little atypical and quirky. I try to keep abreast of current thinking on specific SN topics, keep an open mind, and am willing to revisit his status at any time.

With that in mind .... is re-enacting the plot of a beloved TV show really "self-stimming" in the manner of humming, flapping, etc.? My kid has used TV shows as inspiration for his free play since he was 2.5 y.o. and Diego was chasing condors in the rainforest ...

I think it's a matter of degree. If the child in questions is just doing echolalia and refuses to go "off-script" and is repeating the same thing over and over that's self-stimming. If it's just acting out the scene - and especially if it includes enhancing it or playing with other children - then it's ordinary play.

[Anonymous]

Acting out favorite TV shows is not self-stimming. Neither is pretending to be Diego.

Repeating one-line over and over from a TV show -- "Can you help the baby seal to run?" (From Diego) can be self-stimming.

[Anonymous]

My DS uses TV as an inspiration for his stimming. To most people it looks like pretend play but he doesn't like to be interrupted while doing it and the more stressed/tired he is, the more he does it, the louder it is and the harder it is to interrupt him. He'll do it in the car, on the bed or sitting at the table. He will also do it while moving in a repetitive pattern and punctuate it with a sound effect that we know stimulates his auditory/vestibular system. There's something about that sound effect (which he's done since he was an infant) that he craves. If non-family happen to be in the house, he'll usually go into a different room to do it. It's not for big chunks of time and ten times a day, it's mostly when he's stressed/tired. He does it most on the day he's got school and therapy.

[Anonymous]

I think acting out a TV show, if it is a word for enactment, can be stimming. I tend to think of it as a form of echolalia, but my son has done the entire script thing when he is under great stress.

[Anonymous]

Not trying to offend, but think about the movie Rainman and how Raymond used "The People's Court" to self-stim. That was pretty clear.

[Anonymous]

I have a question too -- I won't be offended, and I haven't seen rainman -- but my 5 year old DD who has no diagnosis, but plenty of sensory and sometimes anxiety issues, just read a book that she loves about a local mystery. About once a day, she'll ask me to act it out with her. WIth props and all. she does get rather excited when we do this (like it a hyper sensory overloaded way -- just extreme giggling at points) and she actually has me tell most of the story but I points I make her step in and tell parts. Is this stimming? Before I even saw this thread I was sort of wondering what it was. But stimming had not occurred to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a question too -- I won't be offended, and I haven't seen rainman -- but my 5 year old DD who has no diagnosis, but plenty of sensory and sometimes anxiety issues, just read a book that she loves about a local mystery. About once a day, she'll ask me to act it out with her. WIth props and all. she does get rather excited when we do this (like it a hyper sensory overloaded way -- just extreme giggling at points) and she actually has me tell most of the story but I points I make her step in and tell parts. Is this stimming? Before I even saw this thread I was sort of wondering what it was. But stimming had not occurred to me.

No, this sounds like imaginative play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question too -- I won't be offended, and I haven't seen rainman -- but my 5 year old DD who has no diagnosis, but plenty of sensory and sometimes anxiety issues, just read a book that she loves about a local mystery. About once a day, she'll ask me to act it out with her. WIth props and all. she does get rather excited when we do this (like it a hyper sensory overloaded way -- just extreme giggling at points) and she actually has me tell most of the story but I points I make her step in and tell parts. Is this stimming? Before I even saw this thread I was sort of wondering what it was. But stimming had not occurred to me.

No, this sounds like imaginative play.

Young kids will repeat-read or watch things over and over as they understand different parts of them. This is why they have the capacity to watch the same movie over and over or as in your daughters case act out this book. It doesn't sound like stimming to me. Perhaps she needs a friend to act it out with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a question too -- I won't be offended, and I haven't seen rainman -- but my 5 year old DD who has no diagnosis, but plenty of sensory and sometimes anxiety issues, just read a book that she loves about a local mystery. About once a day, she'll ask me to act it out with her. WIth props and all. she does get rather excited when we do this (like it a hyper sensory overloaded way -- just extreme giggling at points) and she actually has me tell most of the story but I points I make her step in and tell parts. Is this stimming? Before I even saw this thread I was sort of wondering what it was. But stimming had not occurred to me.

16:23 here. This doesn't sound like stimming to me. For one thing, Stimming is actually "self-stimulation" and what your DD is doing clearly is "self". When my DS does it, he doesn't want anyone else joining him. What your DD is doing sounds like imaginative play.