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Autism/Visual Stim
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My question is about visual stimming . Is there a stratgy or technique that will help decrease it. Or a way to get the child to put it aside for a while to comlpete a task. The child i am thinking about is 3 he stims with small objects, toys. He is autistic, and i don't expect this stim to go away however just wondering how to redirect it for a few minutes to attend to other tasks.
Hi Bethany,
autistic people stim for the pleasure of it but also when they are overwhelmed and to calm themselves down. Can you tell what's the case with your child ?
If he's stimming because he's overwhelmed, see if it helps to make him do his tasks in a place which isn't very stimulating (no bright colors, dim lights, little furniture...).
I find I'm very much distracted by anything brightly colored or moving (an effect is for example that can't really concentrate on any serious task outside (reading, doing work), there is just too much light, color, moving things (leaves on trees, clouds, birds flying) and I generally get visually overwhelmed easily but keep in mind, that's just me, and everybody with autism is different). I work best at an totally empty desk, in front of a plain white wall.
If your child is like that too, his stimming might decrease in such a place.
If he's just stimming for the pleasure of it, I'm not sure what to do.
Perhaps you can try to include the toy he's stimming with in the activity you want him to complete...I'm sorry I don't really have any helpful ideas here. You should probably ask other parents or professionals what helped for them.
Hope this helps,
C.
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Answers by Expert:
Celtica
Expertise
*DISCLAIMER*
Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day.
I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism
and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.
I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).
Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.
Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.
Experience
As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better
I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.
In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area
(AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).
Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !
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