do NTs rock and flap too?

Post Reply New Topic

This is probably the wrong place to ask this! But maybe someone has an idea?
(note: I am ostensibly NT and I rock and/or flap when in extreme emotional distress... and foot-tap when nervous - but doesn't everyone?? )

It's not whatever movements that count, but what causes them. Like everyone sneezes, but there's sneezing because of allergies and sneezing because of a virus, and sneezing that's benign. Everyone stims (rocking, hand flapping, whatever), but not always for the same reason. The reason is what matters.

Small kids can definitely flap when they're excited, and kids who lack stimuli can rock. We saw that kind of behavior in news reports from Romanian orphanages ca 1990. Kids sat rocking on benches and in their beds due to the extreme neglect.

Above a certain age, I think it takes fairly extreme circumstances for NTs to do either.


That's not to say that all of us do it though. I only rock when getting really into music, back and forth when sitting, sideways when standing.

I can remember flapping exactly once (very excited), but I wring my hands when I'm anxious. I also sometimes pace, although I did that more when I was younger. I also did it when I was thinking.

NTs may flap in moments of extreme childlike delight or rock in moments of devastating trauma, but not in reaction to their normal day to day activities.

Sometimes I flap my hands when excited, but not excessively, and only around people I'm comfortable with.
Otherwise, I don't flap my hands.

I'm an Aspie with extreme anxiety disorder, but funnily enough I do not rock at all. I tried it once and it made me nauseas, like a motion sickness type of thing. But my mum knows an NT woman with cancer who rocks back and forth a lot when sitting, to deal with the anxiety and depression cancer can bring.

It is quite normal for NT toddlers to flap their hands or even rock.

In Temple Grandin's book, The Autistic Brain, she suggests that up to 20% of the population have some level of sensory integration difficulties. Obv only a small number of those would be autistic. Some people with ADHD also do similar things. I think that, as mentioned above, what is unusual with autism is the threshold for stress and what kinds of things are causing stress. E.g. my husband was helping me with housework earlier and he messed up my system and triggered me off, but only because his interruption meant I couldn't work out where I was up to and my brain went splat. I imagine shopping centers would be a place a lot of people would feel stressed, especially if they're not good at waiting (which is a human problem). I'm actually very good at waiting, as long as expectations are clear and I know what's happening (and I have my cone of silence (headphones) activated). It's when things change that I get stressed.

Flapping isn't something I've seen adult NTs do. My mum rocks to go to sleep, but I think she has a level of sensory integration difficulty (def NT though). Foot tapping is fairly ubiquitous (IMO).

Yep....NT's "rock" all the time.

As for "flapping": probably not so often, since one has to have really flexible wrists to truly "flap" in the stereotypical "autistic" manner. If I flapped all the time like that, my wrist would be killing me now!

For a second there I misread the thread subject as "Do NTs rock and fap too?"

The rocking you mentioned above, plus maybe "nervous" rocking. Or just rocking for comfort (like autistic people do).

Think about it: why are "rocking chairs" so popular?