Visual Stimming

Assembly_Reqd

I think Nate is doing this. He has a ball ramp toy that I got him when he was about 2 to keep him busy while we played bridge. Here is a link:

https://www.amazon.com/Edushape-805801-Rollipop-Starter-Set/dp/B001H80E9G/ref=sr_1_8?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1372127053&sr=1-8&keywords=ball+ramp

He LOVES this toy. He will play with it for 45 minutes if I let him. He lays on the floor and watches the balls, he will put it on his lap and watch them that way, he will hold one ball and load up all the others so they roll down in a line. Because he was varying up his play, seemed to be 'experimenting' and playing appropriately, I was sort of holding off on my freak out about this behavior because he is also a HUGE fan of balls in general (read: Special Interest)

Another visual behavior that seem a bit off is that he has always enjoyed looking at stuff (i.e. balls!) behind him in a baby mirror.

He likes to lay his head on the table while playing with the ipad. Sometimes, he will play with the game in the upside down position. The majority of the ipad time is appropriate and this visual stim behavior happens at the end of his playtime which is usually 20 minutes.

He just got a low vision diagnosis of 20/100 so now, of course, I am looking at all of his behaviors in a visual light. Today, I added tape to our wood stair edges thinking that the reason why he may not be going down the stairs is because he can't see the edges.

I guess my question is: Are you 'seeing' what I am seeing? My husband is skeptical. I know an ASD diagnosis is possibility, but I sort of pushed that option away because he eats, sleeps, transitions, and behaves (most of the time) like a dream child.

Is this something that low vision kids do or do I need to put ASD back on the table?

doodlemonkey22

Hello, I'm new to this board. I can't believe I just found this board...by accident since mostly on here for pregnancy. Anyhow on to your post. My eldest (now 4) has SPD and this def sounds like visual stimming to me. Of course I could be wrong. I'm not a pro. But reading your post, I could have written it about my own son two years ago. He was also obsessed with any kind of wheels turning and fans and using his peripheral vision. Still kinda is but not too bad now. My DS doesn't have a problem with his vision though. The therapists all told me it was from the Sensory Processing Disorder. DS also had issues with loud noises and touching certain textures. Visual stimming does not automatically mean ASD. It could be related to his vision or be a sensory thing or something else. But I would get it checked out.

thefuturemrskudla

This strikes me as vision related. I know Nate doesn't have CHARGE Syndrome, but you may find the website for the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation very helpful. Many children with CS have vision and hearing impairments and facial nerve issues, so there are tons of resources. We actually attended a foundation conference and found the people professionals and parents amazingly helpful.

Assembly_Reqd

The funny thing is that I went to Walmart to find a toy to maybe replace the ball ramp. What did I end up with? A Thomas the Tank kit that had a samll track and a remote control Thomas. What did he do with it? Laid flat on the floor in different positions as the train ran around the track as well a slide the tracks along the floor to change the position of the kit while the train was running. And just to add more fuel to the fire, I added a tunnel I made from the box. Sigh.

I did just find this article which has a good chart about different sensory stims in deaf-blind children and how you can replace the stims with more socially acceptable behaviors....

 https://www.tsbvi.edu/seehear/archive/mannerism.html

 

august06mom

DS2 does this, and his ST said it's a visual tracking stim. He loves all things round, especially wheels, and does the flip-and-spin with cars thing that Auntie mentioned.

kcisthebombdotcom

My daughter has sensory issues and visually stims. She does not have autism-in fact her functional play skills are advanced for her age, she has no other repetitive behaviors and navigates socially with her peers. She's very interested in other kids play and mimics what they do. 

stimming does not always equal autism.  

kar5162

It sounds at least like part of it is related to his vision difficulties and getting tiredness. DS has motor difficulties and will at times perseverate on doors - opening and closing them. For a while my DH was very worried even though his social play is age appropriate. When we paid more careful attention though we noticed that it was almost entirely at times in the day when he was tired. Almost as though he would get physically stuck near a door and it was an easy way for him to "play". Knowing that, we realized we could easily get him redirected by picking him up and having some cuddle/snack/story time vs our previously unsuccessful attempts to get him to move away from the door and make another even somewhat active play choice. In retrospect it made perfect sense. If he was beat, he wasn't going to crawl across the room and play with something else, he was going to stay right there and zone out. After a story or two, rest time in a lap and maybe a snack, he was ready to go again. As his endurance has improved, we have seen very little of the same behaviors.