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Felt for flapping?

Megan - posted on 11/15/2010 ( 3 moms have responded )

218

My son has PDD-NOS and has just started flapping. I have seen it maybe 3 times in the last month at home, but when I went to observe him at school, it was much more common. Since I was observing right before the parent teacher conference, I brought it up, saying I thought it was a bit odd that he almost never displays this stim at home, but did it several times during the free choice time in the classroom. The special needs teacher jumped up and got a piece of felt and told me to cut squares for him to rub to redirect the flapping. I asked if she should keep them there at school and she said no, it would be best to be done at home. So Three questions: one, does this sort of redirection actually work? how am I supposed to redirect a stim I almost never see? and finally, could this be a learned behavior from some of the other kids in the class, one of whom does it regularly?

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Megan - posted on 11/17/2010

218

Thanks ladies. The biggest problem is I almost never see the flapping, it happens almost exclusively at school, so I am at a loss as to how I am supposed to redirect it.

Melissa - posted on 11/15/2010

598

It's probably something he picked up at school. Last year, my son picked up several harmless stims from a little boy he liked to play with in class. It bothered the teacher (who wanted a stim-free class), but I use stimming as a communication tool, so I guess your response would line up with your thinking on it. If you call his attention to it and its inappropriateness, you can probably redirect him in any number of ways. If you want it to stop, I would say something like, "It feels good to flap our arms, but when we're happy, it's better if we ____."

Samantha - posted on 11/15/2010

My youngest boy who is 3 also has PDD-NOS. He used to head band on anything even a really hard floor. It does help if you keep track of what happens before he starts flapping to find out what exactly triggers this reaction, then you can help redirect his behavior to something else like rubbing the felt. It will take some time to redirect the flapping, but it can be redirected. Hope this helps you out, best of luck.