Looking for advice or just maybe someone who gets it. My son is 11 (just turned) and in grade 6 in an integrated classroom with a TA.
He's high functioning, and if you don't know anything about him, you would not think he was autistic, just a kid with quirks who has trouble looking you in the eye.
I'm wondering what other parents of kids like him do about stims. He has gone through several stages of stimming, from the time he was tiny. He has hummed, face twisting, flapping hands, singing (lalalalala incessantly), and many more. Never all at the same time. He would stop one, be "good" for a while, then another one would pop up.
What we're experiencing now is something we've not seen before. He has started chanting/murmuring. I've tried to listen to exactly what he's saying, but it's hard to make out. It goes something like this - I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go" and on and on. It's said in a rapid fire, sing-song way, so I'm not exactly sure that's what he's saying, but that's what it sounds like. In a chant like way. It doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to it, he just does it. The murmuring is done at different times, and it's just muttering under his breath. When asked "what are you saying", he doesn't even realize he's talking!
The problem is, I didn't at first realize it was a stim, and asked him why he does it (he doesn't know) and now he's worried that it's "weird" and gets teary eyed if it's even mentioned. We don't mention it anymore. But it's also happening at school. I'm concerned that other kids have noticed it and have asked him about it.
Does it get any better? Does the stimming eventually stop or become unnoticable? I don't want him to be labelled "weird" when he's not. But I know how kids are.
I'm waiting for his teacher to call me to discuss strategies they're working on at school.
Deb
"I am not a dreamer, and I am not saying that this will initiate any kind of definitive answer or cure to cancer. But I believe in miracles. I have to.
..... Terry Fox, October 1979
