Advice needed regarding visual stimming

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yowzer
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23 Sep 2011, 4:52 pm

Hello,
My daughter was diagnosed 6 mos. ago with AS. In the last 6-8mos she has started deeply crossing her eyes in the middle of sentences, only once per time. This happens anywhere from 1-2 times a day sometimes not every day. She also has started rolling/fluttering her eyes, it lasts 4-5 secs. She does this randomly but, usually when she is hot, stressed, or tired. It will only happen once. We took her to a neurologist, they did an extended EEG to see if she was having seizures, but they found nothing. They said it was possibly stimming from the AS. I was under the impression that visual stimming was accompanied with eye rolling but not eye crossing. Also, I always heard it to be accompanied with head bobbing/motion and repetition. She does not have that. Has anyone else ever dealt with visual stimming in the manner that my daughter has, absent the head bobbing, eyes deeply crossing mid-sentence and non-repetitive? Any insight or help would greatly be appreciated as we are very confused.
Thank you!



League_Girl
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23 Sep 2011, 5:03 pm

Why is it a problem that she does it?



btbnnyr
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23 Sep 2011, 5:12 pm

As long as she is not having seizures, this is just harmless stimming and nothing to be worried about.

I crossed my eyes just now, and the sensation is analogous to balancing on tiptoe for a moment. It is pleasant to feel your muscles at work, but it is not something that you would want to do over and over again, because it will start to hurt or become discombobulating, especially the eye crossing. It is good that your daughter is only crossing her eyes once per episode.

She might do this for awhile, maybe months, and suddenly stop on her own.

A lot of children enjoy crossing their eyes for the novelty, so your daughter might be doing it whenever it pops into her head. It doesn't sound frequent enough to be a problem.



Georgia
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23 Sep 2011, 5:14 pm

I've seen it before with a 3yr old child that i worked with. He had autism and was non-verbal at that point. We worried about it at first, but then noticed that it happened when he was excited and involved in something that made him happy.

Does your daughter notice it also? What does she think?


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Sora
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23 Sep 2011, 5:42 pm

It being a temporary tic (for many young "normal" kids display tics temporarily too) was ruled out too?

Though if it happens once or twice a day at most and seizure disorders were definitely ruled out... based on that, I agree that it sounds a lot like a "keep a bit of an eye on it just in case but consider it normal, harmless and wait for it to pass"-thing.

I remember freaking out my parents with crossing my eyes on purpose as a kindergartener (note: I was able to explain that I did it on purpose when they asked) and then they went all crazy about me rolling my r's at ages 5-6 or so. It wasn't a stim to me, it was just... no idea, I was probably just a kid doing kid-things. I liked my r's and I "forgot" how not to roll them and there were these two Russian kids in class who said their r's so nicely.


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yowzer
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28 Sep 2011, 1:53 pm

Thanks for all of the advice. My primary reasoning for the question was to decide if this was really what it was, as occasionally seizures that are deeper in the brain do not show up on EEG readings (because they read the surface activity). It seems a common thread that the parents or people who have experienced this are either excited or know they are taking part in the stimming. My daughter does not. She does it involutary and it happens mid-sentence, she doesn't even realize it happens. I wonder if it could be to do with her tics. I guess if the neurologist is not concerned I shouldn't be either?...
Anyways, thanks for all of the response, I have found it very helpful!



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28 Sep 2011, 2:59 pm

My tutor at university regularly did the same while tutoring. She's now a full professor at Cambridge University.