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9:56am July 28, 2014

I was talking about that stim I used to do that made sounds do this rhythmic thing I liked (and that also reduced overload a good deal), where I’d cup my hands and then clap them over my ears.  So I did a video of myself doing it.

When I did this during a school assembly in grade school, my principal tapped me on the shoulder and made me move to the back of the room.  She had told us that this is what she would do if we misbehaved, and that anyone who was tapped on the shoulder should simply move to the back of the room without asking questions.  

I had no idea why she was doing this.  I didn’t even connect it to clapping my hands over my ears until I grew up.  I just remember being indignant because I hadn’t been misbehaving, in my eyes.  I still don’t know if she thought I was being somehow disrespectful, or just distracting, or what.  That particular principal tended to believe that students knew what we were doing ‘wrong’ and didn’t need to be told.  Hence the silent tapping on the shoulder and inviting us to the back row of the room, which was more effective (and less disruptive to the assemblies) than yelling at us.

And since I’ve been talking about different things that all get lumped under the category of stimming, this is a stim that is all of the following:

  • Voluntary (it doesn’t just happen, I have to make it happen)
  • Repetitive movement (which can make it look similar to many less voluntary stims, but it’s actually completely different)
  • Sensory exploration (because the whole point isn’t the movement itself physically, it’s the auditory effect of the movement, which makes it very different from a lot of stimming, closer to staring at ceiling fans than it is to, say, rocking, for the most part, even though it does involve repetitive movements)

Notes:
  1. transdragon reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone
  2. vensre said: !! I was doing this at a concert just two days ago. It’s nice to be able to re-frame little things as stimming and understand my internal logic a bit better.
  3. gloomkittie reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone and added:
    i do this stim from time to time! especially in loud/echoing environments. done it since i was a kid
  4. withasmoothroundstone reblogged this from ecologicallyincoherent and added:
    I’m really, really glad it’s been able to make any chance for you. That’s one reason I write.
  5. ecologicallyincoherent reblogged this from withasmoothroundstone and added:
    Reading your posts about stimming these past few months has completely changed how i’ve looked at myself, for my entire...
  6. clatterbane said: I used to do similar too. It hurts that chronically blocked up ear or I would probably still do it.
  7. autistiel said: I used to do a similar thing! It seems mine was closer to the ears while doing similar motions; I also did a thing where I just used one finger instead of a whole hand. I would call it a ‘wuffing’ of the ears cause that’s what it sounds to me, a wuff
  8. nylorac15 said: I did this ear clapping thing a lot as a kid, often while listening to music or watching tv. I think I liked to do it at loud public events too, like parades. I think I just liked the contrast and rhythm. Contrast is a big thing for me.