Imitation

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Did anyone else in childhood imitate/ pick up movement? I've heard of aspies mimicking sounds, and very random sounds certainly stick with me and replay for up to a week, but I've never done anything vocal.

I used to see something and then copy for the next few days. Some of the patterns have stayed with me, but I generally try to cut such behaviour in public.

I'm not sure about a definition of 'odd movement', but I suppose you'd know it if you had it - I'm not talking about 'stimming'. I sometimes change the speed at which I'm doing something (fast/ slow/ fast/ slow) very quickly. I also tend to walk only on the front of my feet if I'm not wearing shoes. I also walk with my eyes closed a lot of the time, mapping out the terrain in my head only for as long as possible. I'm really talking about 'methods of doing things' rather than out-and-out random actions. I still scratch in exactly the same way as my first cat used to - I picked up animal body language very quickly and I can communicate with cats on levels most people aren't aware that cats are capable of.

I was always unsure about whether I had a natural propensity to move in an odd way, and then took it up smoothly, or alternatively, if I have no natural patterns - meaning that I'm rather artificial and constructed.

While picking up habits largely ended in childhood, there's one more thing: I did pick up a twitch around the age of 18 which generally only comes out at night while trying to sleep. I didn't think it was possible to develop these things later in life.

Is this an aspie thing? I've never read about mimicking body movements nor twitching as part of any list of aspie symptoms.

I did that at the age of 4. I liked the opening sequence of the TV show, The Monkees. I used to run in and out of the water at the beach or a lake a few times before finally walking into the water to play. I also used to try jumping up and landing on my side. One time, I was about to ride my tricycle into the water, and my mum stopped me just in time.

You are talking about three separate Aspie traits here.

The retention of sounds (like a song replaying in your head) is an obsession related trait. Thoughts get stuck in your mind and go on and on whether you want them to or not. I know about this only too well lately because I've been having some severe sleep problems while obsessing about a particular person. The thoughts just will not stop long enough to allow me to get to sleep.

Twitching and similar repeated movements are a form of stimming behavior, which is also obssessive in nature but a beneficial obsession aimed towards creating something comforting, familiar and soothing in times of stress or deep thought.

Mimicking of behavior or actions is called mirroring. Some Aspies, particularly those who are profoundly affected may mirror what they see others doing. For example if you are sitting near an Aspie and raise a particular finger on your hand, the Aspie may also raise that same finger to match your own movements. The person who is currently my primary obsession mirrors my behavior strongly and for a while was matching the shirt color I was wearing on a given day by the color he wore on the next day about 30% of the time. He also matches the state of my bedroom blinds. If mine are open, he will open his and vice versa (today excluded). Do a search on this site for the term mirror and/or mirroring to find more posts about this behavior.

Cheers Sage, very helpful.

I don't know if the twitching is stimming. I can control it, but when I loose concentration (as when sleeping) it happens all by itself. I thought stimming was voluntary?

I don't know for sure, but I tend to doubt that stimming is entirely voluntary. The physical motions are probably voluntary in most cases but the emotional triggers that lead to the stimming behavior may be at least partially involuntary and deeply rooted in the autism itself. I have some strange ones... I have facial and body tics, alternately contracting symmetrically opposed muscles on both sides of my body (neck, face, pectorals, arm, legs etc). I also blink my eyelidsd very heavily when stressed to the point that one time about 8 months ago my left eyelids became very swollen. My strangest one though is that I make squeaking sounds by partially drawing in a breathe then cutting it short by closing off my glottis... kind of like a controlled hiccup. Back when I was about 17, my older stepbrother (a football jock) came in one night and got in bed while I was still awake and trying to get to sleep. He turned off the light and a short time later when I was making these mousy squeaking sounds, he shouted out, "for God's sake, stop that squeaking".

see echolalia and echopraxia, quite common in autistic individuals as far as i know.
stimming is definitely common on WP.

I've always been really good at mimicking other people. All my life I've been told I should get into acting or cartoon voice work. I don't think I would have got very far in either of those occupations......but either way, its a nice thought.

I used to work at a day program with a lot of lower functioning Autistics, those with cerebral palsy, etc. I could mimick almost every single client of ours, and typically they'd respond in a positive way when I'd make the same sound as they did. Like they thought I was speaking in their own special language or something?

I intimidated clothes. i copyed how other people dressed wich didnt go over so well

While my story is mocking rather than mimicking, your comment reminds me of something I did in 7th grade that got me the only D that I ever did get in school. We had a PE teacher named Coach Worthington, a real football jock with no neck type of character who took football way too seriously and never did crack a smile even once that I can remember. There was one fat kid who also thought football was a joke like I did so he and I would always position ourselves opposite each other on the line and gently pretend to do blocking almost like a game of pattacake while smiling and laughing about it as we did so. This teacher's name struck me as inappropriate since he was not really worthy of anything in my mind, so I gave him a new name and began to call him Coach Unworthington behind his back. Somebody told him and he gave me a D for that course.