Taking a Step into Dominic's "World"

How would you like to spend a moment in the wonderful world of "stimming??" Below is an example from this past Monday afternoon. Dominic is reciting part of a DVD that my sister gave him at least eight years ago that he has watched many, many, many times.

According to the Interactive Autism Network, A Partnership of the Kennedy Krieger Institute and the
Simons Foundation:

"many individuals on the autism spectrum exhibit some form of repetitive motor behavior. Just as they may speak a word or phrase over and over again (echolalia), or even just utter the same sound repeatedly, they may flap their hands, flick their fingers, bang their heads, grind their teeth, or endlessly perform other seemingly random physical acts. The psychiatric term for this is stereotypy, but these actions are more often referred to as “repetitive behaviors” or “stimming” – which is short for self-stimulation."

We learned a long time ago that when Dominic is over stimulated, he will retreat into his "world" of repeating parts of videos and television shows/commercials (referred to as "scripting") as a coping mechanism. When we were in Maryland last week on vacation, we stayed with our close friends who have always owned a cat.

This is how Dominic prefers to observe cats, when there is glass separating him. To Dominic and the cats credit, the two of them managed to co-exist relatively harmoniously. When we went to another friends apartment and he noticed a cat hanging out in her bed in the living room, he screamed, started walking in circles and then began non-stop scripting. I think because he hadn't noticed the cat when we first got there. Dominic went back to summer school yesterday after a week off. Monday, I heard him repeating an old Barney Christmas video. Yesterday afternoon it was a commercial, "just two pills, all day strong, all day long." As the week goes on, the stimming will decrease as he gets back to his routine, but never really goes away completely. Over the years, we have developed a few phrases to get him to stop when we feel he has visited the stimming world for a little too long. Last night, Dominic was reciting part of Thomas the Train. Well, it had been awhile since he had been there!

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