Sherlock’s nervous energy seeks relief in stimming. John notices and takes a moment to figure out what is going on.
2B mechanical pencil and white colour pencil on brown paper, A3
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Yay, finished my first art after coming back from rehab in January.
I have done most of my fanart on A4 because my scanner is A4 but I have started to feel kind of caged by the small format. A3 is a bit tricky because I need to scan it in two parts and merge it in photoshop but it’s great to work on a bigger sheet of paper.
Feel free to reblog here on tumblr, but do not repost, edit, use or upload it anywhere else without my written permission!
don’t know what parent of an autistic child needs to hear this but as long as they’re not harming anyone your kid’s stimming is not a “problem behaviour”
in our house we have a few categories of stimming behavior.
1. the nocategory. this is for things that are unsafe.hurting self (head banging, scratching), hurting others, chewing on choking hazards. i know this is excluded in OP’s post, but i’m putting it on my list because if you parent an autistic child and deal with this, you have to be aware that a key to off-limits stimming is redirection. stimming satisfies an important physical and neurological need for the autistic brain, and that behavior is sensory-seeking.if you must say no, please also offer options or help redirecting to appropriate outlets for pressure, motion, rhythm, chewing, etc.
2. the shared space category. listen, i get that a lot of people are assholes about things that aren’t hurting them. that’s not what this category is for. but we have a household with multiple autistic individuals and a work from home situation. “shared space” is the code phrase we use for “please take this stimming to a different location.” sometimes, aural stims like repetitive noises or physical stims like pacing can be legitimately distracting to other people in a room (or car!). in the case of other autistic people, it might even feel painful or mentally consuming. this category is no-judgment “please move to another location to continue stimming this way.” it’s not bad, it’s not wrong, you aren’t being shamed– just do your best to respect others and their needs or comfort, and leave the communal area or lower your volume.
3. the you do you category. it doesn’t matter that nobody else is doing this to feel comfortable or happy– you aren’t hurting anyone else, you aren’t being disruptive in a space other people are using together. go for it.
and in every single category, anger has no place in redirecting a stim. not even the no category. stimming isn’t malicious, there’s no actual moral requirement to be “less weird” or “like everyone else.” even reminders like “you aren’t the only person in this room and that’s very loud” don’t need anger. stims aren’t done at anyone. they’re just the body expressing a kind of neurological hunger, and whether the answer is “enjoy that!” or “this isn’t safe for you to eat (ie, do)” fury doesn’t help.
oh shit this is a REALLY helpful way to conceptualize stimming and competing needs.
There’s a hilarious and informative thread going around, probably best known as the “YEET THE CHILD FOR THEIR HEALTH” post.*
While it’s worth a read by its own right, we’d like to bring you one particularly spoonie-oriented reply from Paediatric Occupational Therapist Zoe Gianduzzo:
As adults, does your body ever feel jittering/jiggly/wiggly/like it needs to move or calm down but you just can’t figure out why? That’s your sensory system saying Hey! I need to feel differently in order to function better!
Here’s what you can do:
Jump up and down (vestibular and proprioception)
Give yourself big squeezes (proprioception)
Place your hands on a wall and do push ups (proprioception)
Do cartwheels (vestibular and proprioception)
Get someone to give you the biggest bear hug for at least 10 seconds (proprioception and social connection, also proven to help regulate your sensory system into just right zone!)
Get a drink of water and drink it through a straw OR blow bubbles into the water (way more fun!) (oral motor input and respiration)
Have a shower or a bath (tactile)
Stretch and do exercise (vestibular and proprioception)
Eat something crunchy or chewy (like chips or gum) (oral motor input)
Listen to some music that suits your mood (auditory)
etc etc etc! I’m sure you already have a strategy that your body has figured out works for you. I personally like to chew gum when I feel like i need to eat something but I’m not actually hungry and just need that chewing sensation in my jaw.
Long story short, everyone has a sensory system and we all use regulation strategies like the ones listed above to help make our body feel better. So if you ever see someone (especially kids!) fidgeting and having a hard time focusing, maybe suggest something from the list above!
If you’re a leg bouncer, you’ve already found one solution—but now you know why you do it, and some other things that may help.
*If you missed the whole “yeet” thing: it’s a new slang term that means to throw or fling something. You can also yell it as you throw something or as a victory cry, but you might get some funny looks if you’re not a Gen Z-er.
We on this blog, of course, encourage you to use it to mortify your children and grandchildren
I verbally stim when I’m really happy. People used to bully me for it so I learned to be ashamed of it. Now, years later, my partner has helped me unlearn that shame, and embrace my verbal stims.
here’s a couple little hand stim emote for you!! i wanted to make one even though theres a lot of them out there… we can never have enough flappy stim emotes though … —
like or reblog if using pls!! i also got a kofi if you want to throw money at the court jester https://ko-fi.com/fiarts
I love that it’s canon Faybelle’s wings flutter when she’s excited and droop when she’s sad she’s the cutest thing here’s my favorite picture of Faybelle I love Faybelle btw
