Stimming better defined

[Guest guest]

Hi all. I'm a newbie here and have a question for the group. I'm obviously not

looking for a diagnosis, but simply want to understand things a bit better and

get an opinion from those familiar with things.

I'm curious about stims. My 5 yo was born preemie with many problems initially,

but caught up quickly. He is developmentally on track or ahead and very verbal,

etc.

But when he is excited he does a little hand flapping thing in front of his

chest and runs in a sort of pacing motion while he tells an exciting story or

something. He has done this since he was a toddler.

Recently he's started doing this during some of his free play time along with a

sort of " bombing noise " he does with his mouth. I was curious and have asked him

recently what he's up to or what he is playing. At first he just always answered

" nothing " , but lately he tells me a story he is pretending (fighting bad guys,

etc). The actions he is doing is just running back and forth and flapping his

hands loosely in front of himself and making the noise with his mouth. He

doesn't appear to be acting anything out.

So I'm wondering if these things would be considered stimming or not. They look

like it, but I wasn't sure of the mindset behind actual stimming--is there

something going on in their mind usually or are they just concentrating on the

motions, etc.

He has had some screenings in the past, but they were not at all thorough and

since he was so young and the problems so minor we decided to wait to pursue

more testing. Now we are down the road a bit and most of the other sensory

issues have resolved, but I'm still wondering about this possible stimming. Is

it something we need to look into more or is it just something else he will

outgrow in the next couple years?

Thank you for letting me join your group and thanks for any insight you can

give.