Our difficult child stims. He has the hand/foot flapping common with aspergers, but also has a couple of hand movements that we have categorized as stims. He has one where he appears to be itching the outside of both sides of his nose with his hands at the same time. And one where he does the same thing to the back of his head.
We notice that for him it is done mostly when he is revved up or excited about something - it appears to work as a sort of release of energy for him. Some days it's practically non-existent and somedays frequent.
He has always had the hand/foot flapping - I recently found a picture of him in his excersaucer - he was about 7 or 8 months old - and his hands and feet were moving so fast that they are a blur in the picture. I was a bit shocked to realize he has ALWAYS done it.
