I also love the feeling of typing on my keyboard, which is why I enjoy my current job as a transcriber. I love the movement and feeling and it makes me feel better when I do it.

One of my go-to stims is flicking my pens and pencils. They can also be tactile, sensory stims such as running fingers through slime or rolling a ball of clay or flicking a switch. They can be physical, such as fidgeting, hand flapping, clapping, or rocking, they can be verbal, such as humming or echolalia (repeating words or phrases), visual, such as watching the sparkle of glitter or the rotating motion of a ceiling fan or fidget spinner, or auditory stims, such as listening to the same song or phrases repeatedly, or listening to certain sounds that are soothing (such as ASMR videos on YouTube). In reality, any form of stim suppression, including “whole body listening,” can make it harder for students to learn and pay attention and can actually be harmful for neurodiverse and disabled people who learn best by being allowed to stim and fidget in class and are uncomfortable with eye contact.įirst of all, what is stimming? Stimming are behaviors that are self-regulating and self-soothing. It comes in the form of “whole body listening,” or classroom posters that encourage students to listen with their whole bodies by making eye contact with the speaker, and using “quiet hands.” It looks respectful and it makes a teacher’s job easier when they know students are looking at them, and appears to be paying attention. Stim suppression, at first glance, may not look abusive. These stim suppression techniques do not look abusive, but they harm neurodiverse and disabled people. Image description: Common methods of stim suppression, including “quiet hands,” and variants including “nice hands” and “safe hands,” forcing eye contact, and “whole body listening” that is encouraged at schools and in some early interventions such as ABA.

Safe hands calm body boardmaker