Hand Flapping

Post Reply New Topic

If you have an Autistic child that does the typical hand flapping that goes along with Autism, is it better to let them use that technique to calm themselves down or to teach them that its inappropriate to do that?

Why is it inappropriate?

Hand flapping (or any other kind of stimming) is your child's way of coping with the environment.

You shouldn't try to stop this. And you certainly shouldn't tell your child it is wrong or inappropriate.

a lot of times hand flapping is an expression of happiness or excitement. like a smile. why would you try to get rid of that?

i think it's cute when they get flappy. it also seems to help me find other parents in the real world who have kids with similar issues as mine. i saw one little guy last week just flapping away and i'm glad because i went to talk to his mother and she sure needed someone to talk to about it.

I think flapping is an amazingly cool communication! Last year, when we had a less than thrilling OT eval by the school system (where I had to explain stimming to an OT) the teachers and I had a great conversation about how you could read my Aspies internal state by just observing his flapping/drumming. He's got happy/excited stims and frustrated/about to melt down stims.

Julian eventually switched from flapping to drumming on his body, but it's just as readable and an invaluable tool for someone observant enough to understand this visual language. This is the ultimate expressive receptive and emotive language, even if it's not what speech therapists evaluate for.

I say flap on.

I've always just let my son flap. As others have said it's his way of expressing himself.

Actually, I did suggest the other day that he didn't flap but that was because we were in the glassware department of a shop! He had a look round and retreated to a "safe" place, then resumed flapping.

As he's got older he's been able to recognise for himself when it's better not to flap, and he clasps his hands instead. He told me he did this when giving a presentation at school because he "wanted people to concentrate on what (he) said and the flapping might distract them".