Should I let him stim?

[Guest guest]

Hi group

This issue is rearing its ugly head again. Nick is almost five, and

doing very well. He is conversational, loves to be funny, etc. etc.

Not like the other kids at all, but a pretty cool kid overall. We

are happy, but we still find cycles of stimming that rotate in and

out-especially in the winter or when he is not well (has a chest cold

right now) Stimming is usually visual, such as numbers, clocks,

lining up things, etc. He tells me he " loves to stim, Mom " and he

tries to hide it, and jumps a foot if I find him doing it (he knows I

disapprove) We have always followed the policy of redirection in the

past, but our consultant wants us to try something new - having

a " stim box " that we would call " downtime " with some favorite stim

items in it. We would have the condition of going off to himself,

and " stimming " but only for a period of time. The idea is that we

allow him this time, usually after school or after a long day of

therapy, to get it out of his system. I HATE this idea, but maybe

this would take away his desire to do it, once it is not forbidden

anymore. Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Guest guest]

We have a boy 5 y.o. too. He had ABA program 2-5 years and now is in

kindergarten. One year ago our new consultant suggested the same

downtime idea. Before that we also would redirect stims, mostly

visual, toward more typical behavior whenever possible. So a year

ago we started downtime three times a day, right when he woke up,

after lunch and around dinnertime. We made a social story book

saying " different people do differnet things for " downtime " . some

people read books or watch videos. Soemtimes I do my special

activities during my downtime. " We used a visual time-timer to show

the 20 minutes he had each time.

Now that he is in kindergarten he has one of his self-monitoring

points as " I will only have downtime at home before supper. " He is

beat when he gets home from school so he gets his downtime and a

snack.

By naming it we have been able to shape the time he does it.

Hopefully in the future we can shape the activities he chooses during

downtime. Hopefully he can learn to choose more typical activities

like books or playing with toys, listening to music, etc... We plan

another social story book that will help to shape the activities he

chooses.

> Hi group

> This issue is rearing its ugly head again. Nick is almost five,

and

> doing very well. He is conversational, loves to be funny, etc.

etc.

> Not like the other kids at all, but a pretty cool kid overall. We

> are happy, but we still find cycles of stimming that rotate in and

> out-especially in the winter or when he is not well (has a chest

cold

> right now) Stimming is usually visual, such as numbers, clocks,

> lining up things, etc. He tells me he " loves to stim, Mom " and he

> tries to hide it, and jumps a foot if I find him doing it (he knows

I

> disapprove) We have always followed the policy of redirection in

the

> past, but our consultant wants us to try something new - having

> a " stim box " that we would call " downtime " with some favorite stim

> items in it. We would have the condition of going off to himself,

> and " stimming " but only for a period of time. The idea is that we

> allow him this time, usually after school or after a long day of

> therapy, to get it out of his system. I HATE this idea, but maybe

> this would take away his desire to do it, once it is not forbidden

> anymore. Any thoughts?

> Thanks

>