Visual stimming is visually repetitive movements or actions that catch and hold the attention of a child with autism. Examples that are common are wheels spinning on a toy truck, ceiling fans, hand flapping, dropping grass in front of your eyes again and again. I knew that my daughter had a high degree of visual stimming issues. She would flap her hands, flip through books constantly without reading, or more happy watching the repetitive screen saver than anything on the computer. We generally stayed home. I had not thought about what would happen when those visual stimming tendencies met the real world in a high stress situation.
Our family was in Florida on my son’s Make A Wish trip. The second day in Florida we went to SeaWorld. We missed the dolphin feeding because my son and daughter (both with medical problems and autism) could not stand in line. Then Shamu was really a girl and had just given birth. There weren’t even pictures. The day was saved thanks to the cute but awkward penguins.
The day was perking up quite nicely with the addition of trick or treating along the path. As we walked out of the park I have to admit the sugar kept the family moving along quite nicely. When we passed out of the trick or treating area and to the outer exit/entrance area hubby and I made plans to leave. I began unloading our children from the stroller. Hubby began unloading our bags.
THEN IT HIT ME! WE WERE MISSING A CHILD!!!
To my utter HORROR my daughter was not with daddy like I thought. My heart leapt into my throat. It was literally hard to talk. It was hard to even form a thought beyond GET CHILD!
Hubby had his hands full with bags, the stroller, and kids so I took off for our little one. I RAN. I RAN harder than I ever have in my whole life. I knew exactly the last time I saw her just minutes earlier. I knew the exact route. I tried to get help from a worker along the way. I went to where my gut as a mom of a child with autism knew I would find her. The bubble machine.
Children with autism that have a visual stim are drawn to repetitive visual items. The bubbles had already held her attention for over 5 minutes earlier, until we decided it was time to move along and go back to the condo. I was lucky!
My daughter was standing by the bubble machine still enthralled with the bubbles and a nice mother of a child with autism held her hand. She stood there with my child protecting her for the few minutes we were separated. While the park worker with her began searching for me.
THANK YOU DEAR MOM! THANK YOU!
The Hypnotic Attraction of Visual Stimming can be DANGEROUS!
As a mom having experienced this I want to warn you to be alert and aware of the dangers this kind of visual stim can lead to. A bubble machine caught my daughter’s attention and caused a possible dangerous situation. The situation could have been much worse. The gurgling of water from a creek with sun glittering through it can be just as enthralling and deadly. The wind blowing grass or leaves can draw a child out of a campsite into the woods easily. The world is full of visually distracting and wonderful things that if your child is prone to them could lead to a dangerous situation.
I am not trying to scare you but make you aware. Being alert to these possible dangers will help you prevent your child from wandering off or any other danger the stim could lead them into. I would also recommend you remind those with you that your child is drawn towards repetitive items like water so you can have help in keeping your family safe!
I always have this jolt to my system when the words “Where’s D…..?” come out of my mouth or my husband’s. Even now, at almost 13, he is still prone to wander (or DASH) off without the slightest warning and if we’re not watching, who knows where he’ll set off to. A bubble machine?? I remember when he was SO enthralled by bubbles. He would follow anyone ANYWHERE if they were blowing bubbles. He used to spin car wheels too, over and over and over. He never pushed the cars, he just played with the wheels. I guess that should have been my first inkling that he was on the spectrum but at the time I didn’t know that went along with it. He’s very high functioning, but his stims are always a pull for him. HOW SCARY!! I once lost him– as in he disappeared, at the age of 2.5 and nonverbal– at a homeschool roller skating day. He went OUT THE BACK DOOR of the rink (no alarm on that fire exit!!) and we had no idea. The moms searched all around inside and out, and when we found him, he was behind the (thankfully FENCED) rink, knee deep in a gigantic puddle, smacking the water with his hands and watching the ripples. Made me want to put a GPS tracker on him. Sigh. Water is his #1 stim and even now, it is a huge draw he can’t resist.