Hand Flapping

There have been a number of people who have come to this site looking for information about hand flapping or compulsive behaviour as it might also be known. Our Zoe has always held objects and shook them in a rapid motion. We have come to refer to this as 'twiddling'.

We have not discouraged this behaviour within the confines of the house, but over a long period of time we have managed to enforce the belief that twiddling is not something that Zoe does at school or whilst out shopping or when visiting the dentist etc.

Zoe does draw huge comfort from this hand action, and it would be very cruel to deny her this comfort. The twiddling does manifest itself every single day, from when she wakes to when she goes to bed. However, it should be stated that Zoe knows to drop her twiddles at meal times, when she goes to the toilet and most important of all, when she goes to bed. This is important as she would not go to sleep.

Reading this, people might consider that we are not acting in the child 's best interest by normalising this compulsive behaviour.

We would argue that in giving Zoe a time and a place where this comfort action is accepted, we are able to define boundaries around the compulsive behaviour. This was originally defined in a simplistic way, with instructions such as "Dinner then twiddle", "Toilet then twiddle" and when we go out "leave twiddle on the stairs". For the latter we make absolutely certain that the twiddle remains where Zoe left it.

It is very much evident that when the 'twiddle' is withdrawn, Zoe becomes very agitated and distressed. We have even witnessed Zoe holding her opposing wrist and twiddle the free hand.

UPDATE November 2006

We have been through a fairly difficult period with Zoe where her behaviour is becoming slightly more challenging. This behaviour has manifested itself in many ways, one of which has been on the bus to school. Zoe travels in a minibus with a number of other children, all of whom has learning difficulties.

To recount this it is necessary to go back a few months to a time when Zoe was getting stressed and very vocal on the bus to and from school. The school had a book about a little girl called Tabatha who screamed a lot and had tantrums. This book was called Tantrum Tabatha. Now, the school had identified that Zoe showed an interest in this book and decided to try and get through to her through the book as a means of intervention. The school covered some of the words and put in phrases such as Mrs (teachers name) will be cross if Tabatha is screaming. This didn't work and Zoe's behaviour continued to the end of term.

On returning to school for the autumn (fall) term we found that Zoe was becoming stressed about something and as a result she would kick the seat in front and scream loudly with a considerable amount of crying. We began a process of trial end error with the bus driver and carer trying various methods to calm Zoe down. In desperation we suggested that Zoe takes her 'twiddle' onto the bus and hands it to the carer before going into school, so that it stays on the bus. Zoe's behaviour changed instantly and completely. The tantrums stopped and Zoe is much calmer throughout the day as a result of having this 'vent' for her frustrations.

We then asked ourselves why this had started again, what had triggered this behaviour? The answer came very recently, Zoe had found the modified Tantrum Tabatha book in school and the whole pattern of behaviour had begun again. The school threw the modified book away and Zoe had her twiddle on the bus. These two things combined have cured the problematic behaviour on the bus. In conclusion, we are guessing that Zoe did not appreciate the book being modified - she knew exactly what the words should be and for whatever reason, she made her displeasure very clear for all to see. Of course we could be wrong as only Zoe knows what goes on inside her head and she is completely incapable of reaching out to us and sharing her worries and frustrations.

UPDATE October 2008

The tantrums are a thing of the past. Zoe still twiddles and we now understand why and that it is known as "Stimming". Zoe does this as a form of security and it kind of creates walls around her. The stimmng makes everything OK - the outside world can't get through and as such we are fine.

That is what we think, we would love to ask Zoe but she just gives us a blank stare and repeats one of her many echoic phrases.

We have read a great deal about this stimming from a book which we have mentioned on other pages called "What you can do right now to help your child with autism" by Jonathan Levy (see our Further Reading page on the left).

We have not broken this behaviour yet, but watch this space as we have not given up and we never will. Zoe needs to develop to a point where she no longer needs or craves the' wall' we shall see.

Welcome to the world of autism....