Daughter hand flaps
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Anonymous
| I have an 8 year old daughter that hand flaps. She is hfa. She flaps her hands at her head. She does it a lot, basically to express her happiness. Because she's a happy girl it's throughout the day, constantly. We think and have read that eventually her sensory system may mature so she'll do it less. It's basically something she does so often it's too hard on her physically and emotionally to get her to stop and her ABA therapist thought so too. Are we wrong to just let her flap? Yes she gets a lot of stares but I don't want to squelch her form of expression. Does everyone who sees a hand flapping child assume autism? Can we just see if it decreases over time? Any opinions welcome. |
Anonymous
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This Johns Hopkins link helped explain a lot of the questions I had about hand flapping and behaviorial interventions for reducing it.
http://m.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/specialty_areas/pediatric-neurology/conditions/motor-stereotypies/faqs.html#1 |
Anonymous
| Op here - thank you for the link. Anyone else have thoughts on my post? Would be grateful for opinions. |
Anonymous
| Happy flappies, I wouldn't worry about. People will assume what they're going to assume but who cares. |
Anonymous
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We haven't spent any time on correcting that behavior in our son. At age 5, he flapped and pogo-jumped a lot. At age 11, he now does more subtle finger postures.
He never go teased for it and one two people (my mother and an assistant teacher) ever remarked on it. Both of them were sort of idiots so take that for what it's worth. That behavior is noticeable, but harmless. We had so many other problems (social communication, expressive language, receptive language) to work on with him that we let it go. At least the hand flapping and pogo jumping and finger postures communicate useful information. |
Anonymous
| OP, I am not sure if this is what you want to hear but yes, if I see a child flapping their hands I assume autism. She sounds like a happy girl with supportive parents, so lots of good things going on. Best wishes. |
Anonymous
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My BFF from childhood hand flaps. She does not have HFA. I have a child with HFA who never hand flaps.
Until DC was diagnosed and I read about stims and hand flapping, I never knew that hand flapping could indicate autism. I always thought this was one of my friend's mannerisms and actually kind of cute. She hand flaps with her hands near her chest. She only does it when she is happy and excited about something. She is an Ivy league graduate with a MBA working in international finance, married with children. The hand flapping for her has never been an issue. My child with HFA finger postures sometimes and he use to jump up and down, pogo jumps (thanks pp), when he is happy and excited. He's 6. Nowadays, he mostly verbalizes his happiness and excitement but honestly, I would not care if he kept finger posturing and/or pogo jumping when he's excited. |
Anonymous
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Ours has what we call "the tremble" when she is excited. Others familiar with HFA have referred to it as flapping but that's not how it appears to us.
She still does it do a degree, though a bit less and less as she ages (she's now 8). We are believers that if the gesture reflects positive excitement, we don't want her to feel bad about it nor to try and suppress that positive excitement or think it is "bad." So far it has not been a social impediment for her. My one bit of advice is: help your child to understand why they do this and to verbalize it, as in, "When I get excited about something, sometimes I flap my arms." Without characterizing it as good or bad. So if another kid or adult comments on it or reacts to it, the child can explain herself and often it becomes a non-issue. "Oh, she does that when she gets excited." It's when other kids are confused that things are more likely to become an issue. And if your child is more aware that she is doing it and why, then she can choose not to do it if she doesn't like the reaction, and she can explain herself, without your making her feel self-conscious about it. |
Anonymous
| likely due to toxins produced by gut dysbiosis or viral cause. Get an organic acid test done. In the meantime try a good probiotic (eg Kirkman probiogold) at 20 bill active cultures twice daily. |
Anonymous
WOW! It's so amazing how you can diagnose a kid and prescribe treatment over the internet without having an MD. It's even more amazing because you have never even seen the kid! You must be a genius! |
Anonymous
| I think it's cute. |
Anonymous
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from the johns hopkins post referenced above
I’ve noticed that my son stops flapping his arms if I distract him by saying his name. Should I keep doing this? Motor stereotypies cease with distraction, but we strongly advise that this type of awareness training should be conducted as part of formal behavioral treatment program. When a child is frequently alerted of his movements outside of a formal therapy setting, there is a concern that it could lead to psychosocial problems. The best approach is to pursue formal treatment with a behavioral therapist. |
Anonymous
| My daughter is 8, and has hand flapped as long as I can remember. She is not on the spectrum, but may have a very mild form of Tourette's. I would not assume anything as many kids do this. However, there are many ignorant people out there, but do you really care what they think? It doesn't change who you know your little girl is. I find it kind of an advantage as it outs people that I clearly have no interest in knowing. |
Anonymous
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My daughter is 6 and her hand flapping has reduced over the years. We have discussions with her on how it's not socially appropriate to flap hands and what she can do instead of flapping (e.g. clap hands). Now, she is more aware when she starts flapping and clasp her fingers together instead. It's also helpful if I give her deep squeezes on her shoulder and arms.
We also talk about when she can actually flap and do silly dance (e.g. when we're listening to fun music in our living room, or do animal charades-bird). |
Anonymous
Personally, I think it's even more amazing how people prescribe quacky OT and behavioral interventions for ASD kids. You've all been brainwashed to believe that autism is just a genetically acquired psychiatric disorder. I'll bet some of you still believe in the refrigerator mother theory... |