Stimming is short for self-stimulatory behavior. It refers to repetitive movements, sounds, or actions: rocking, hand-flapping, spinning, tapping, humming, echoing words.
Autistic people stim. So do non-autistic people — leg bouncing, hair twirling, pen clicking. The difference is that autistic stimming is often more visible and more persistent.
Why autistic people stim:
- Sensory regulation. The repetitive input is organizing. It helps the nervous system manage incoming information.
- Emotional expression. Stimming often intensifies during excitement or distress — both high-arousal states.
- Focus. Many autistic people report that stimming while doing cognitive tasks actually helps concentration, not hurts it.
- It feels good. This is underrated as a reason. Pleasure is a valid purpose.
Why suppressing it is harmful:
Early ABA programs specifically targeted stimming for elimination. The reasoning was that it looked "abnormal" and interfered with social integration. The result, as documented by autistic adults who experienced these programs, was that the suppression redirected the underlying regulatory need — and the pressure to suppress built internal distress without release.
Stimming suppression is now widely considered harmful practice. The autistic community has been clear about this for decades.
The right approach: ask whether a stim causes harm (to the person or others). If not, leave it alone. If it does, work with the person to find alternative regulation strategies — not to perform normalcy, but to address actual harm.
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