Creative Occupational Therapy Services, LLC

Stimming can help to regulate the body. It can help a person calm down, gain control of their senses, communicate, destress, focus, express emotions, cope to prevent meltdown, decrease anxiety, and more. A person may stim more when overstimulated or feeling strong emotions (both positive and negative)- and sometimes they do it just because it feels good!

DO:
Think about your own biases when you see a person stimming and accept it as okay
✅ Talk to children about the benefits some experience when stimming to help normalize it
✅ Provide stim toys and give sensory breaks
✅ Redirect stims that involve self-harm (head banging, scratching, etc). If you can figure out the root-cause, and take steps to prevent before it occurs, that is best!
DONT:
Block non-harmful stims
Say “quiet hands”, “quiet body”
Stare, ask if person is “okay”, or make judgements

April is Occupational Therapy month
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