Reimagining Stimming: Building Bridges, Not Barriers

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Stimming behaviors, when properly understood and supported, can be bridges to connection rather than barriers to inclusion. What might appear unusual to neurotypical people serves crucial self-regulating functions for those with autism or ADHD.

• Stimming (self-stimulatory behavior) includes repetitive movements like hand flapping, rocking, or vocalizations 
• These behaviors help individuals self-regulate emotions, cope with sensory overload, or express feelings
• Mimicking stimming can either build connection or feel offensive depending on the individual, context, and relationship
• Observe stimming to understand its purpose rather than immediately trying to extinguish it
• Create safe spaces where appropriate stimming is allowed and encouraged
• Only redirect stimming when safety becomes an issue
• Use clear, simple language when communicating with someone who is stimming
• Provide gentle warnings, predictable routines, and calm environments when transitions are necessary
• Remember that stimming represents effective self-regulation strategies, not behaviors that need elimination

For deeper dives into these topics and more, check out indispensable-people.com and visit Amazon to purchase the books The Indispensable Kid, Gospel Accessibility, and The Indispensable People.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, my name is Tracy Correll and welcome to
Indispensable People.
I'm a wife, mom, teacher,pastor and missionary, and I
believe that every person shouldhave the opportunity to know
Christ, grow in Him and serveHim with the gifts that he has
given, no matter their ability.
Over 65 million Americans havea disability.
That's 25% of the population.

(00:26):
However, over 80% of them arenot inside the walls of our
church.
Let's dive into those hardtopics biblical foundations,
perceptions and welcome to thisepisode of Indispensable People.

(00:54):
Thanks for joining me today, andI am ready to talk about
stimming.
We've talked about this topicbefore in many different
contexts, but we're going todive deep into something a
little bit different today, andI am so interested to have this
conversation with a bunch ofpeople because I think it could

(01:17):
revolutionize some thinking.
I think it could open up doors,but it has the potential to be
offensive.
So let's really get into it.
Let's talk about stimming, whatit is.
Stimming is a short forself-stimulatory behavior and
involves repetitive physicalmovement or vocalizations, often

(01:39):
used by individuals with autismor ADHD to self-regulate
emotions or sensory input, andit's really important to
approach stimming with anunderstanding and a respect,
offering support rather thanjudgment when interacting with
someone who is stimming, we wantto observe their behavior, to
understand the purpose whetherit's self-regulatory, whether

(02:03):
it's a communication and we wantto offer some safe, alternative
stimming options.
Not all stimming is bad, notall stimming is distracting, but
some stimming can be harmful tothe individual or harmful to
other individuals.
So if in any of thosesituations, we want to offer

(02:24):
different opportunities so thatthat is never the case, we
always want to keep people safein the best ways possible.
So transitioning from stemmingand a stemming activity can be
eased by providing some clearcommunication, a predictable
routine and a calmingenvironment.
So that's kind of the overview,but let's get into more

(02:49):
specifics.
So we said that stimming is anatural behavior.
It's often seen in individualswith autism or ADHD.
It involves repetitivemovements or vocalizations, and
these behaviors can includethings like hand flapping,
rocking, humming, repeatingwords or phrases, and stimming
can be a way to self-regulateemotions, cope with sensory

(03:11):
overload or express excitementor other feelings.
So here is something that Iobserved a while ago, and this
is not something that I had seen, and so a while ago I had
invited another individual to beon our buddy team at church.

(03:33):
This particular individual hasbeen a mom of children with
autism for, I think, 15 years atthis point.
She has walked through so muchin her life and with her
children and she has a wealth ofknowledge and experience and

(03:57):
patience.
Because of all of that Now I'mgoing to give a little bit of a
warning.
I typically do not engage norask parents to be serving in the
disability ministry, not forany other reason, except that I
want our disability ministry tobe a respite and a benefit to

(04:20):
them and their family, to themand their family, and so, unless
a parent feels called to serveas a part of the ministry, I
really, really push them toengage in the church in all

(04:40):
kinds of other ways and alsoenjoy the respite that they have
.
So warning over.
So, anyway, this particular momvery like I said, wealth of
knowledge, incredible experience, background of understanding,
not even just working withchildren, but she's also worked
her employment in the field,working with individuals with
disabilities, and so we had hada brand new family come and

(05:03):
visit and they were twin boysand though they're both boys um,
uh, I think they were maybeeight or nine years old and
obviously they're twins, sothey're both eight or nine years
old came mom explained that oneof the twins was diagnosed with

(05:25):
autism and you know, a lot oftimes this happens and the
parent explained that basically,as long as they're with their
sibling they'll be fine, whichmeans that the sibling is helps
them in those self-regulatorymoments and all of those kinds
of things.
And so we as a ministry willalways set out to take that

(05:48):
weight not only off of theparents but also their sibling,
and so we provided a buddy thatmorning and it happened to be
this mom who the child duringthe message portion of the
service would jump up and kindof twist around and then bring
himself back down in the chair,and he had done that repeatedly

(06:11):
and she started to do that samebehavior.
So that was his stimmingbehavior and I at the moment
wasn't sure how I felt about itbecause I thought, okay, is that
joining him?
Is that mocking him?
Is that encouraging him?
Is that making him feel likehe's not alone?

(06:32):
I had all the thoughts and allthe feelings about this, and
recently I had watched somethingthat talked about stimming and
it showed this behavioralapproach in therapy and the
video showed a child who thetherapist was trying to engage

(06:53):
with and the child would notengage and they continued in the
stimming, and so then thetherapist began the stimming and
then, once the child realizedwhat the therapist was doing, he
became happy and excited andthen became connected to her and
I thought, wow.

(07:14):
So then it talked about howthat behavior and the stimming
was a connector, a relationshipbuilder and under a bridge to
understanding one another, allof those kinds of things.
And so I was like, oh, maybethis is a good thing, maybe this
is a great thing, maybe this issomething that could be benefit

(07:36):
.
And then I went to researchmore, because I'm never going to
take one thing and just go withit, and this was more so that
that was a child in therapy,receiving that treatment and
engagement, an educationallywritten article about it, and it

(08:07):
was also encouraging thatmimicking of the stimming
behavior.
And then I went on to read somecomments from I think they were
mostly, I would say, grownadults who were in the workplace
, things like that, and theywere asked how they felt when
someone mimicked their behavior,and the majority of them

(08:29):
indicated that they didn't likeit and for the most part they
felt mimicked or mocked and sothey had different feelings
about it.
So I would say that it isprobably specific to the

(08:50):
individual.
It might be an age andengagement thing and also an
environmental thing.
I would say.
In our church setting with ayounger child, it did the same
thing.
It helped them to connect.
It helped him to feel like hewasn't alone and instead of

(09:12):
because a lot of stimmingbehavior is typically
extinguished, stopped,redirected, because a lot of
times it can feel somewhatdistracting in a group full of
people, especially in a churchservice, I guess and so instead
of basically cutting them off,telling them what they were

(09:35):
doing wasn't okay, all of thatkind of stuff the mimicking of
the stimming helped connect,helped him make feel like he
wasn't alone and built a greaterbond within that space.
Would we feel the same thingwith a teenager or an adult?
I think, depending upon theirlevel of autism, it would depend

(09:59):
on that, maybe in a more severe, significant way, where
communication was limited andinteraction was limited, it
might be beneficial.
But I would say the higherfunctioning individuals, if you
want to say that, or like thelevel one, maybe even level two
autism diagnosis, it could beoffensive.

(10:21):
Again, it's always going tocome back to knowing that person
and knowing and seeing whatinteraction works best for them.
So I want to take that intoconsideration Again.
This is something new at thattime that I was experiencing and
have then since chosen toresearch and read about it and
there are mixed feelings aboutit and I think that's okay there

(10:45):
.
Whenever I get upset and I cry,listen, I love the support of
somebody, but if you come hug me, I'm going to then melt into a
full mess of a you know, sobbingand all kinds of stuff.
So the way that I interact anddeal with certain things impact
the way that others interact anddeal with me.
So that's across the board,disability or not, right?

(11:07):
We all have preferences andways that we like to process
through things and that's goingto apply to every person across
the board.
But it had opened my mind to dosomething different that builds
connection and community andunderstanding and just belonging
in that space that I wouldn'thave thought to do.

(11:29):
So that is something I wantedto bring awareness to as we're
talking about stimming.
So here are some other thingsthat we want to talk about.
When we're interacting withsomeone who is stimming, we want
to observe and understand.
Again, we want to know, youknow, is this stimming?
Because they're regulatingemotions?
Are they dealing with aspecific trigger.

(11:50):
Is there communication that'strying to happen within it?
We want to also respect andaccept.
Accept that stimming is anatural behavior and a way for
the individual to cope.
We want to avoid judgmentbecause if we judge and we try
to create a harmful way or aseemingly harmful way for them

(12:11):
to stop the stimming, then we'regoing to make it worse, right?
So the only time that changesis when safety is an issue and
there's harm happening.
So we would want to redirectthat in any way we possibly can.
The next thing we want to offersupport, not intervention.

(12:33):
If stimming is disruptive orpotentially harmful, we want to
consider offering alternative,safe stimming options.
That's where, you know, arocking chair, a trampoline, a
you know, all of those kinds ofthings would be a safe option to
stimming.
That would provide repetitivemovement and those opportunities

(12:58):
that would keep that personsafe.
Want to make sure that we'recommunicating clearly.
If we need to redirect theindividual, we want to use clear
and simple language.
If they are stimming, theirfocus and attention is not on
you.
So if you are giving themEspecially detailed instructions

(13:19):
, they're not receiving it.
So if you are giving themespecially detailed instructions
, they're not receiving it.
So we want to be careful to dothat.
If we have to communicateduring that time, we want to be
clear and we want to use simplelanguage.
We want to create safe spaceswhere stimming is allowed and
encouraged.
If needed, a quiet room or astim corner, even in a space if

(13:39):
a child needs their own, youknow, safe area to do that.
Some here's some tips ontransitioning from stimming.
We want to provide advancedwarning, right.
You don't want to like cut offeverything right in the moment,
in the middle of things, whilethey're trying to regulate
themselves.
So we might want to use avisual schedule or a verbal

(14:02):
warning, even a gentle timer,right, not an er er, er kind of
timer.
We want to offer some choicesof how they want to transition.
You know, maybe it's apreferred activity that helps
them transition into somethingthat they enjoy.

(14:23):
Want to make it predictableright.
Transitions become easier whenthey know what's coming.
We want to provide a calmenvironment After transitioning,
ensure that the new environmentis calm and supportive.
This helps them to readjust andmanage anything that is
residual from the stimulationthat they were receiving.

(14:47):
I want to use positivereinforcement.
We want to acknowledge andpraise the individual's efforts
because, listen, what they'redoing in the stimming is
self-regulation, andself-regulation is hard for any
of us to do and obviously morecompounded for someone who

(15:07):
struggles with executivefunctioning impulses, all those
kinds of things and the need forstructure and rigidity and all
of those things.
So they are working throughsomething and doing it, for the
most part, in a positive way.
That's a great strategy, right?
That's not something that weneed to shut down.

(15:29):
What usually makes it difficultis it's not the so-called norm,
and when it's outside of thenorm it might draw attention,
which makes people on theoutside feel uncomfortable, and
that's what makes us want toextinguish the stimming.
It's not about us.
It's what is working for thatperson in the moment and as long

(15:50):
as they are not harming someoneelse and we can do it in a way
that helps them process through,we can do it in a way that
helps them process through, thenit's a benefit, it's not a bad
thing.
So that's a part of creatingthat welcoming environment that
is inclusive and accepting and,again, that creates an

(16:12):
accessible gospel, and that isthe goal.
Do I know everything aboutdisability ministry?
Do I have all the answers?
Have I done everythingperfectly?
I have absolutely not, but weare going to continue this
conversation so that people ofall abilities can have the

(16:34):
opportunity to know Christ, growin Him and serve Him with the
gifts that he has given them.
Serve him with the gifts thathe has given them.
For deeper dives into thesetopics and more, check out
indispensablepeoplecom and visitAmazon to purchase the books
the Indispensable Kid and GospelAccessibility and the
Indispensable People.