Why do we rock?

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hey ya how are ya? i got a qusion.why is it that i rock back and forard?also i sliyly getting better at sleeping at night,but oley by 5%.

Well, I rock forwards and backwards because it's more comfortable than rocking left and right.

Perhaps you meant to ask "why do autistic people like to rock?" I don't think anyone really knows the answer to that one. I have two theories, though.

One is based on the fact that autistic people have a generally reduced sense of proprioception compared to NTs. Proprioception is the awareness of your body's orientation in space and the position of your limbs based on feedback from your muscles as they work to counter gravity. I find that if I am not moving around then eventually my awareness of my body is reduced and I feel a bit like a brain in a jar. It's much like getting acclimatized to a mild smell - the smell doesn't go away but your mind registers that nothing is changing and just deemphasizes that sensory input to the point where you don't notice it any more. Almost any kind of physical activity causes the muscles to increase (and vary) the level of feedback which prevents the brain from ignoring that source of information. Rocking is a simple way to engage quite a few muscle groups, although I generally prefer bounce my legs around when using the computer, as mousing and typing keeps my arms and hands firmly attached to the rest of my body.

The other theory is that the motion boosts our level of mental activity by constantly changing our visual perspective (in addition to proprioceptive input) in order to combat fatigue or inattention. The motion performs the same function as Ritalin by ensuring that the brain stays in a state of heightened energy, the surplus of which can then be used to concentrate on whatever task we are trying to accomplish. This theory would explain why I am more likely to rock in the evening when I am tired and/or inebriated and the stimulants have all worn off.

i find that if you're not sleeping well, the rocking increases .

Rocking is comforting. My AS son rocks when he is stressed. He also rocks himself to sleep. Sometimes so do I.

Our daughter has always rocked back and forth. Especially when she's excited (in a positive way) about something. She usually rocks when she's watching a movie or a cartoon she likes.

I feel bad when I tell her to stop it because when she's rocking she always has a smile on her face because she's enjoying what she's doing so much. When I say "stop rocking" she realize she's doing something bad, or incorrect and it immediately kills her mood. She's 15 now and she still does it, but not as much and she doesn't rock with as much force as when she was younger. Now its just a tiny little rocking motion.

I kinda console myself with the thought that I'm forcing her to be self aware and realize she's doing something socially incorrect. I tell myself I'm doing it for her own good. Which is true. I can only imagine what other kids at school must say or think when they see her sitting in class listening to her teachers (she obsesses about her teachers) rocking back and forth.

Once I even showed her how bad it looks to see someone doing that. I sat down and rocked back and forth and said "this is how you look, what would you think if you saw someone doing this".

I kinda still feel back though. But what are ya gonna do?

As for what causes our greater need for rocking or just stimming in general, no one knows as yet. But I certainly think we can all agree that we rock because we like it and it feels good and we'd feel uncomfortable if we didn't.

I don't think the "if it feels good, do it" philosophy is all that healthy. Speaking as a parent that is.

Its been especially difficult teaching our daughter what Is and Isn't socially appropriate either to say or to do. While rocking may be comforting it isn't socially appropriate so its not something you want to get into the habit of doing (kinda like picking your nose).

I didn't stim for a lengthy period of time (to the tune of about five years or so) and I was all screwed up. I do it now, though. A lot. It makes me a lot less violent and moody/broody and seem a little more approachable. So, perhaps it can be a good thing, yes? You shouldn't stop your child from stimming if he/she feels it calms him/her; it does a lot more neurologically than you might think. I know parents don't like seeing their children stim; I go into another room and my parents never see me stim. I'm not really sure why, though. Perhaps it reenforces that their child is neurologically abnormal. I wouldn't know. I'm not a parent.

for me, it's not about acceptance of son's and hubby's differences~it's more about the fact that i work in special ed all day and then come home to them....i love them dearly, but i can only take just so much stimming.

i think you are right, though, that many parents have a difficult time accepting their children's differences......i have one student who was in a horrible accident as an infant ( luggage from an overhead rack in an airplane fell on her head causing irrepairable damage)....she has seizures, is in a wheelchair, has extemely limited range of motion and does not verbalize at all. ~now get this...her mother is convinced that her daughter will be able to get a job in the fashion industry upon graduation.

My son is 11, and I understand where you are coming from.

His "preferred" stimming during the school day was twirling his hair, which was beginning to leave a bald spot. He then moved on to picking skin around his fingernails which was leaving him one night unable to pick up a fork at dinner. Now, for the school day, he gets two bandaids, one on each arm, on the hairiest part. (He's pretty hirsute). He sits and picks at the bandaids all day, he has until 3pm to get them off but if they come off before three he's out of stimming "material". His school doesn't encourage hand held squeezies and such.

This has worked remarkably well (with an additional band aid for standardized testing days LOL).

At home, he spins on a desk chair I handed down to him. It helps with his proprioreception issues as well as seems to calm him down.

Before we knew he had AS and about all this we had tried to stop his stim behaviors that were annoying, and it only led to worse things. It is a need. I don't know if it is physical, psychological, or neurological, but I know that without the ability to do it, my son becomes frustrated and devolves very quickly.

You may want to help her find something more socially acceptable, or less visible, if she needs to stim during the day/in public. IMHO, we should all be able to let our hair down and be ourselves at home, but that's just my .02.

Anyone familiar with this parasomnia will have noted handedness. Therefore an argument for neurological dysfunction rather then compulsion associated with so many other stims. This is the real McCoy of repetitive issues present since infancy which can carry into daytime behaviour. Donald Townsend's description is bang on but he misses this point. A child who rocks on her right cannot do so on her left. So if you try to curtail the behaviour try to turn the child over. Curious to know if anybody rocks from the left out there? Is it hemisphere-related?

Last edited by airhead on 23 Apr 2010, 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Because that's how we roll.

I got in the habit of rocking left and right when trying to get my daughter to sleep. Now I do it sometimes even when not holding a baby.

I never rocked.

I learned not to rock in front of other people because they would get mad or tell me I looked stupid. I usually only rock when Im alone and it is always to calm myself....I guess its the same reason babies like it. I always used to say I liked rocking my babies because it gave me an excuse to do it. My husband and I had to go in for our bankruptcy not long ago and he had to tell me that I was rocking....I was nervous and want even aware I was doing it.