What is stimming?

horussebooks asked:

What is stimming?
Stimming is doing repetitive things that give you sensory input. For instance:
  • Rocking
  • Waving your hands
  • Rolling a marble
  • Playing with a tangle toy
  • Repeating words over and over
  • Ripping paper

Stimming can be really important for autistic people for several reasons. Some are:

  • Stimming can make it easier to think and understand what’s going on
  • Stimming can prevent overload or help to pull someone out of overload
  • Stimming can be expressive body language.
  • It can happen kind of automatically. For people who automatically stim, refraining from doing so can be a drain on cognitive resources and make it impossible or difficult to do anything else