My son loves to spin...

Amy - posted on 12/01/2012

I have a son, 3, who has been to a developmental for eval. We wanted to know if he was autistic. My father has Aspergers. Luke has a severe speech delay. The doc ruled out autism. But ever since he could walk, he spins when we vacuum, when the shower is running, his car race track is on, etc. anyone else going through the same? He is very loving and physically no disabilities. Thx A

Jessica - posted on 06/17/2010

The child I work with her OT also recomended this too!!

Vickie - posted on 08/23/2009

My sons not a spinner, hes a runner! He runs back and forth accross the sitting room or up and down the hall for long periods. I used to try to get him to stop but he would get frustrated, so I let him do it now. It seems to kind of centre him more. I figure if hes in a safe environment then he can run as much as he wants. It does give me a bit of a headache sometimes tho, lol!

Rachel - posted on 08/20/2009

hey hunny just let him get on with it . its peoples small mindedness that makes u feel u should encourage him to stop let him be free to express himself just having a quiet word is sometimes enough to make them stop. my son who is 8 flaps his hands so fast we say to him jack u will take off the ground soon lol i used to try encourage him to do this only at home but it got him all uptight and upsett more easier when we were out as i learned he did this as part of the fact we were out and things were diff from the home enviroment so it is jack expressing his excitement, u will probably find from day to day he wont do it as much as he gets a lil older. my son has various ticks ect ect and i let them go over my head to me he is jack. couldnt care what other ppl think so long as he or no one getting hurt by it why shouldnt u let your son spin

Heather - posted on 08/17/2009

My son is also a spinner, though he doesn't do it all the time, I have found that he has started to do it more and more recently. The one thing that he does religiously is NOT step on cracks in roads, sidewalks or tile floors. And on tile floors he has to step both feet in each square. His therapist at school found this out one day when it took 20 mins to walk from his classroom to the office which should only take about 5 at the most. LOL And they were the ones that didn't believe me that he had a problem. They said he was just too young and needed to be in preschool again!! He showed them! LOL

Rhiannon - posted on 08/17/2009

My daughter used to spin as well, and she eventually stopped. I like that idea about spinning in a chair, she would have loved that! I agree about safety first, and if he is able to control his spinning and just do it at home, or in a controlled environment, that would be exciting to see. When my daughter, who is 14 now, started controlling herself, I would become so excited and the worries that I burdened myself with, seemed to be lifted little by little.

Cheryl - posted on 08/17/2009

i would just let him do it, really he isnt hurting anything, my sons ot therapist says that they just cant help it, everyone has their own thing and they need that.

Alicia - posted on 08/16/2009

Quoting Abby:

my son's occupational therapist reccomends that I spin my son in a chair 40 times left and 40 times right so that he has enough stimuli and won't need to spin any more on his own. tiring work tho

kills two birds with one stone though - a little therapy and a little cardio  :)

Karen - posted on 08/16/2009

Hi Sarah, My son even now at 14 loves to spin. When he was younger and I was going to a store etc, I would park far enough away from other cars and when we got out I would have him spin 20 times in one direction then 20 times in another. We would then cout off 20 steps, and he would spin next to me 5 times each direction. We would do this all the way to the store. By then he would have most of it out of him, then I would re-direct him in counting how many steps we take in the store, or how may ilses we went down. By re-directing him, he concentrated more on counting. when we would get to the car, I would have him spin again, just because he was good. It got to the point he knew the routine and I didn't have the problem anymore.

Abby - posted on 08/14/2009

my son's occupational therapist reccomends that I spin my son in a chair 40 times left and 40 times right so that he has enough stimuli and won't need to spin any more on his own. tiring work tho

Sarah - posted on 08/14/2009

Thank you everyone for your great advice! I have felt so alone with all this weight on my shoulders and heart...I am so glad I have found this community. Thank you again...

Kristen - posted on 08/14/2009

Spinning is actually part of some therapy programs, because it feeds certain parts of the brain. I agree that safety must come first, but I would let him spin when it is safe such as at home, the park, school, etc.

Barbara - posted on 08/14/2009

My son who was 13 yesterday is still spinning all these years later - he does't even seem to be aware of when he starts to do it! It seems to come on totally randomally, and if you ask him why are you doing that - he'll say 'what was i up to?' He is very high functioning. Can be very hard to live with. That and walking round and round my coffee table!

Lena - posted on 08/12/2009

I have a friend with a high-functioning son. When repetitive behaviors go up, specifically spinning and going in circles, she swears that it is actually a flair up of yeast. As soon as she addresses the yeast issue for him - it goes away. There are some physical symptoms too that she watches for that suggests that he has yeast (e.g., white coated tongue, rashes, BM issues, etc).

Michelle - posted on 08/12/2009

I know that when my son or children in his class display certain behaviors, the teachers try to replace it with another behavior. Perhaps teachers/therapists/doctors can suggest behaviors that may be more appropriate. Maybe giving him a hand-held fan or even blowing a pinwheel will give him enough stimulation while walking through stores to get you through safely...Just a thought.

Lindsay - posted on 08/12/2009

dont worry a lot of kids with autism do that my 4 year old does it all the time he loves it

Summer - posted on 08/11/2009

I have a couple of favorite books on high functioning ASD/Aspergers that are worth reading. One is "Kids in the syndrome Mix", this one talks about kids that have more than just ASD. My son has high functioning ASD and ADHD, so this is a good book for us. It talks about a wide variety of mixes. It is common to have more than just ASD. Another book I like is "Parenting Your Asperger's Child". Even if your son doesn't fit the specifics of "Aspergers", the books both deal with high functioning ASD.

Becky - posted on 08/11/2009

I can't remember the name of the book I read but it talked alot about "steming". Go to the libruary and look at the books on Autism. I would think all of them would have a chapter on this. Good Luck...

Andrea - posted on 08/11/2009

This is tricky. As Summer said you need to worry about his safety when spinning out and about. For children with ASD spinning, arm flapping, or in my sons case jumping and arm flapping are all ways of releasing tension. If they don't release this tension then we know they will explode. Maybe you could talk to him about something else he could do when he is out - a substitute behaviour? Good luck

Summer - posted on 08/11/2009

The only thing about letting him spin anywhere is that he may end up getting hurt. If he is a rule follower and you can get him to understand that specific places are good places to spin, it will probably keep him safer. I know that with my son, he likes to run and flap his arms and even though he is 9 1/2, he looses awareness of anyone else when he is doing these things. Because he gets so focused on running and flapping, we have to have a rule that he can only do that in certain places when there aren't other people around, that way he and everyone else avoid getting hurt by it. I don't know if you will be able to get him to just stop, it is a self-stimulating behavior and most kids have a hard time "turning it off".