Stimming

by Maria
(Plainfield, IL)

Hi, I am new to Sensory processing disorder, my son just turned 3 and has been in early intervention for almost a year already...he was born with Colpocephaly which is a rare brain disorder that can cause anything from severe mental retardation and death to much milder symptoms like speech delays, learning disabilities...since there is very little known about the disorder, you pretty much have to just wait and see what happens with your child as time goes by and have them evaluated every 6 mos...anyways, my son met all his milestones up until about a year and a half or close to 2 yrs old which is when the speech delay became obvious...little things that I never noticed were pointed out to me by the therapists doing the evaluations...

To make a long story short, he started speech therapy twice a week, developmental therapy twice a week and OT once a week...he was diagnosed with SPD pretty quickly by the OT and he also has low muscle tone and transition problems...I'm sure this is all related to the Colpocephaly...so I am learning about all of this now and I am a little confused on the "stimming" part of all of this...I would appreciate it if some parents could give me some examples of "stimming behaviors" and some kind of definition as to what it is exactly and why they do it....is it a bad thing? if they are self soothing while doing these things, why would that be a negative action? my son does have a fixation with trains and laying on his arm and pushing them around and watching the wheels over and over for long periods throughout the day, but isnt that what all kids do when they play with trains?? I dont understand why these little things like hand flapping when he gets excited could be considered bad things...he's just expressing his excitement and happiness isnt he??

Thanks so much!