Day 2 : Stimming

Ok, so Evan has this funny little thing he does pretty much any chance he gets.  He LOVES and I mean LUVS to twist anything he can get his hands on such as cords, string, pieces of material, ANYTHING.  He developed this behavior about 3 or 4 years ago and has never looked back.  Many, but definitely not all, kids with autism have these behaviors known as "stimming". 

So what is "stimming" you might ask?  Well, I will tell you.   It's a a self-stimulatory behavior.  In a person with autism, this usually refers to some type of repetitive behavior such as, but not limited to, hand-flapping, rocking, spinning, repetition of words or phrases, or in Evan's case twisting.  He has other repetitive behaviors, but twisting is definitely his favorite.  It's funny because really, we all do are share of "stimming".  If you have ever tapped your pencil, bitten your nails, twirled you hair, etc., yes, you too have "stimmed".  Unfortunately, the world is a little more excepting of the way most people stim, as compared to how people with autism stim.  Like many of us who engage in  repetitive behaviors, people with autism usually do it to manage anxiety, fear, anger, or deal with any situation that may be overwhelming to them.  We all do that, don't we?  I guess at some point someone decided it was more acceptable to bite the nails off our dirty little fingers, but not flap our hands (which is definitely more sanitary).  And just so you know, I am not doggin' on all you nail-biters out there,... I have a certain 2-year-old in my family who just can't seem to get enough of those little nails of his.  I'm just sayin,'... really we are all not that different.

Back to Evan...

Oh, we love our sweet Evan, but his little twisting habit has definitely caused some annoyances in our home.  He has a tendency to get a little carried away and he does not discriminate whatsoever when it comes to picking out his next victim.

Needless to say we have had our share of ruined items in our house.  In order to protect him, and some of our things we have had to take some extra precautions.

We have had to hang all our cords to our blinds up high so he can't reach them.

This is actually the ceiling in his room.  We wanted to hang lights in his room, but did not want him to twist the cord up so we had our wonderful brother-in-law who is an electrician place an outlet on the ceiling along with moving his light switch up high so he can't turn it on in the middle of the night anymore.

We have also had to take down many of the curtains in our home because he has tried to twist those into knots and has ripped the rods out of our walls while doing so.

Of course it's difficult to keep everything out of his reach.  He has twisted up many of my clothing, (including some new sweaters I had just washed that were laying out to dry).  Yeah, he got a hold of those, twisted them into knots and dumped them in the toilet.)  Ahhh,.... it's a good thing he is so cute.

Yeah, we love the little guy despite the havoc he can create around here.  Even Vanessa has fallen victim to Evan's compulsion.

Yes, that is Evan trying to twist her hair.  He just can't help himself.  He has twisted my hair into knots before. 

As you can see he is having the time of his life.  Oh, Vanessa,... she puts up with a lot, but she is such a good sport!  Evan adores her!

In fact while I was writing this I discovered Evan upstairs,... and what do you think he was up to?

Just twisting away....

Yes, he got a hold of a cushion from one of our chairs.

He keeps us on our toes, that's for sure.  But despite all his little quirks, we love him like crazy anyway, even if he is driving us crazy while we are loving him!

I mean look at this face...

How could we not?