Visual stims

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Hi,

My 4-yr-old is a huge visual stimmer. In the past, he would run objects past his eyes really fast and scream while doing it. Of late, he has begun flicking his fingers and stares at them. He can do this all day long. He holds his hands in different positions - in front of his face, below his face (at waist level), to the upper right side, and the upper left - pretty much all directions possible. He also does a lot of sideways peripheral gazing.

I am worried that he might have vision issues. He is non-verbal and cannot tell me if he does or not, so I am posting here. Could anyone tell me why he has these stims and if they are a sign of vision challenges ? Thanks in advance for your help.

I don't think it means he has visual issues. He just thinks his fingers look neat when he flicks them!

I have a lot of visual stims, too. If I walk by something that has a moving light pattern, I could stare at that all day long. Sometimes, things are just fascinating to watch, so we get mesmerized by them.

For example, I used to squint my eyes and look at streetlights, and it would make them look tall. If I tilted my head, it looked like they were dancing. My mom thought there was something wrong, but I just liked looking at how the lights went when I squinted my eyes like that.

Don't worry, it's most likely something that's completely normal for an autistic person if you think it might be serious, you could check with a doctor to make sure, if you're able to. I wouldn't worry, though.

Thank you. That puts my mind at rest. He has always had visual stims but they have intensified in the past few months and I was getting worried that his vision was problematic. Thank you for telling me it is most likely OK.

No problem, glad to help

Don't worry that the stimming has become more intense recently, either. Stims can come and go, and vary in intensity as time goes on. I have some stims that I do now that I never did when I was little.

Stims indeed change all the time. Your son will likely soon alter his habits, but I still feel I should point out that I'm only a few notches above legal blindness in terms of vision quality, and I started wearing glasses after an eye exam at age 5, which is also when I got my Asperger's diagnosis.

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