Autism and Stimming in Virginia Beach VA

Stimming refers to the repetitive and unusual movements or sounds that children with autism use to regulate their emotions and sensory system when feeling overwhelmed. This behavior can take different forms, including hand-flapping, body rocking, unusual postures, visual stimulation, repetitive behaviors, chewing or biting objects, and repeating the same song or show.

The intensity and style of stimming are closely related to the level of stress and tension within the child's nervous system. Stimming is not only associated with autism but can also affect children with sensory integration disorder, ADHD, anxiety, and other challenges when they feel anxious or overwhelmed.

Although stimming may not always be evident, trained professionals can identify and help children and parents overcome these challenges. If you notice your child engaging in stimming behavior in noisy or new environments or social situations, seeking the support of a pediatric chiropractor can help identify and address any underlying neurosensory challenges. The reason why children with autism stim is to regulate their nervous system and calm their brain when overwhelmed by sensory or social stimuli.

Compared to other neurological challenges, autism is associated with the highest severity of sensory integration disorder. This means that children with autism have less tolerance for additional stimuli, leading to sensory overload and anxiety. Therefore, they use stimming as a coping mechanism to reduce sensory overload, adapt to new environments, decrease anxiety, and express frustration. By decreasing stimming behaviors, we can help children with autism better adapt to social situations and reduce their sensory load. As a pediatric chiropractor, our focus is on improving neurological function and adaptability without the use of medication.

When children feel overwhelmed or anxious, they may engage in stimming behaviors such as biting their fingernails, twirling their hair, cracking their knuckles, tapping or drumming their fingers, clicking pens or pencils, or chewing gum.

For children with autism, stimming behaviors may include rocking back and forth, flapping their hands or flicking and snapping their fingers, bouncing, jumping, or dancing around, pacing or walking back and forth on their tiptoes (toe-walking), pulling hair or biting, clenching their jaw or fists, repeating words or phrases, or playing the same song or show repeatedly. It's important to note that stimming behaviors vary in severity and frequency for each child, and addressing them often requires a personalized approach based on the individual's unique needs and challenges.

Stimming is a behavior that serves as an adaptive mechanism for children with overwhelmed and stuck on sympathetic fight-or-flight overload. When the body is in a perpetual state of tension patterns, known as subluxations, and then their sympathetic nervous system is further stimulated by loud noises, bright lights, lots of people, or new sights and smells, it gets even further wound up and tense, and therefore the movements and stimming actually help calm the brain by increasing what’s called proprioceptive input.

Proprioception is the stimulation or sensation of movement into the brain and central nervous system, and it’s known to be the most calming and regulating sensation we have. For children who already have higher levels of stress, tension, and subluxation even when at rest, stimming behavior is an essential coping mechanism to handle new and stressful situations.

Stimming, or self-stimulatory behavior, is often triggered by loud and overwhelming sensory environments. While it's important to provide a peaceful and calming environment, being in public places with lots of people and distractions is a regular part of life. Rather than focusing on the child's external environment, a neurologically-focused pediatric chiropractic approach seeks to calm and quiet the child's internal environment first.

Subluxation, a neurosensory imbalance, can leave the child's brain and body constantly stuck in a "noisy" internal environment. Signs of tension and subluxation can include tightness in the neck, shoulders, and jaw, excessively dilated pupils, and a tense facial expression and body posture. The neurological connections to stimming, anxiety, autism, and sensory integration disorder can go back as far as birth and early childhood, such as breech positioning, birth trauma, infantile colic, constipation, and challenges with gross motor skills.

Addressing these underlying issues, such as reducing stress, tension, and subluxation on the nervous system, can help reduce stimming. Improving the function, tone, and regulation of the nervous system is the core focus of a pediatric chiropractor. By doing so, the child can better adapt to new environments and stressful situations and not need to resort to stimming to cope and regulate their nervous system.

If birth trauma, colic, motor tone and coordination issues, autism, anxiety, or sensory processing challenges sound like your child, it's important to address these issues to help reduce stimming. A visit to a pediatric chiropractor who specializes in neurologically-focused care can help detect and address these underlying issues without the use of drugs and medication.