Question about hand flapping

Estherfromjerusalem

Well-Known Member
A cousin of mine has a daughter who is beautiful, intelligent, popular and loved by her friends. She flaps her hands and when she does that her face also becomes distorted. Can anyone put a name to this? She has no other symptoms. She is 13. Love Esther
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Sounds like stimming to me. Or tics. If it's stimming, it does generally reduce in obviousness as they get older and more aware of other people noticing. Tics are more difficult to manage but can also reduce with gentle help.

Marg
 

buddy

New Member
A boy I took care of suddenly developed tics and it ended up being PANDAS (I think that's right ) brought on by strep. No traditional strep symptoms. Other illnesses can trigger it. It was managed with ongoing antibiotics but that backfired because it stopped working and he got strep and the rapid test didnt pick it up due to the antibiotics. Had to do a blood test. They ended up just going situation by situation. His tics were severe. I know I had at least one student who had this too.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
The critical factor is whether she has "always" been like this, or if it has developed recently.
If it's "always"... then, more likely a tic or Tourettes, or something like that.

IF it's recent... these things don't generally just show up for random reasons, and it should be checked out by a M.D.
 
If this has been long term then my best guess would be Tourette's. My son and my dad both do the hand-flapping. I've never done it but I do have multiple facial tics. Tourette's has many different tics and they don't all have to be present to fit the diagnosis. Stress will bring it out more tics as will puberty in some kids.

There are ways to tic that make the tics look less like tics and more like normal movements. For example if I need to twitch my nose I will often put my hand up to my nose and give it a little scratch while I tic so no one notices it.
 

lovemysons

Well-Known Member
Hi dear Esther,
I rarely see you post a thread of your own on the board and just HAD to let you know I am thinking about you.
Hope you all find answers re your cousins daughter.

with love,
LMS
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Hello Esther, it's been a long time since I "talked" to you and owe you a long e mail.
My first thought was "shadow" symptoms. Some people do not have severe enough symptoms to interfere with their lives but they are odd all the same. Hand flapping is a pretty common symptom for the autistic spectrum. If she has no other symptoms and has no family members with AS then it may be a tic. My first thought was being on the autistic spectrum since it is common.
 

Estherfromjerusalem

Well-Known Member
Hello, thank you for your replies. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner but I have been in England for a holiday (it was wonderful, thank you). Yes, this hand-flapping has been for many years, and she is sufficiently in control that she sits on her hands. It seems to be her only symptom, aside from being really messy in her room. But that is it -- no other symptoms at all!

Stimming will be investigated now and we shall see.

Thanks again, everyone.

Love, Esther
 
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