cataspie wrote:
My son does it fast as well he also makes sounds alot like csssshhhh and other things at the same time.I did wonder about tourrettes but i think there would be school issues with shouting out if it was that.
punky wrote:
My son also makes all the noises while he flaps his hands. When he was younger I would ask him what he was doing and he would just say playing.
They are pretending something, and their hand movements represent whatever they are imagining. My 8 year old son does this. I recognized it as pretending, because when I was little I used to make very similar noises while playing with my toys. I have asked him about it a few times. He gets embarrassed and usually won't talk about it, but when he does, he confirms he is imagining something happening, usually a fight scene between two ninjas, a person running very quickly, or something spinning rapidly.
I am curious. I know what it looks like when my son does it, but I always wonder whether hand flapping is the same movement for everyone, or is it just any kind of repetitive hand movement? My son twists his arms really fast, clockwise then counterclockwise. But before he started doing that, I had always imagined it was a rocking motion back and forth in the direction of the top of the wrist and then back towards the bottom of the wrist.
Personally, I do a lot of drumming on tables, sometimes alternating between my pinkie and my thumb in a motion similar motion to my son's. I also do a weird thing where I rub my fingertips together in a particular pattern very quickly (which I also do with my tongue across the front of my teeth or the roof of my mouth). Do these count as hand flapping? Stimming? Or just quirkiness? I have not been in for official evaluation yet, and so I haven't had a chance to ask a professional.