In Case You Missed It: Freedom to Flap

Photo: www.lovetoknow.com

In many cultures around the world, the hands are considered to have their own innate beauty. They have moods, character, and personality. In every society known to science, the hands symbolize cultural behaviors, values, and beliefs.

The hands are the organs of the body which, other than the face, have been used in various art forms to express human feeling. In the creative arts, the hands speak. The hands have tremendous power to convey human emotions: they can point or lead or command; they can cry out in agony or lie quiet. 

One of the first things I learned as a new paraprofessional (and ABA therapist) , was how to gently prompt away an undesired behavior, particularly hand flapping. Although initially I did as I was trained to do, I never felt right about asking a child to stop flapping with the widely accepted verbal command of  "quiet hands...".

As a person who has 'talked with her hands' her entire life, this felt so wrong and hypocritical. No one has ever told me "quiet hands", ever, and I often felt inner conflict when I was expected to give this instruction to my young students. Outside of any type of aggression or injurious behavior, why is hand flapping considered an inappropriate behavior? Is it really inappropriate or just annoying to the person who does not understand it?


My background in exercise science and understanding of how physical movement helps the brain engage, process and grow, gave me the insight that it was not such a huge problem as it was made out to be, nor a barrier to learning or socializing. However, in the case of flapping, I think that expecting a child to ignore their sensory & bodily instincts is more of a barrier than the behavior itself.


I look at it this way: if a child communicated to you that he/she was thirsty, hungry or had to use the bathroom, would you deny them water, food or the permission to go to the lavatory? Of course not.

Then why, in the name of sensory processing, would anyone deny them a sensory need?


Instinctively,  have always understood flapping to be exactly that: a sensory need. I see it as a communication. I observe it the most when my students are excited about something. Its a release of excess or nervous energy or as an affirmation of delight. In some cases, it shows that the child is trying to re-engage in an activity that is over or under stimulating. I see it as a direct response to sensory stimuli, or the lack of it. Just like water satisfies thirst, so does flapping satisfy a basic need. And an important one.


A profound first-hand account of hand-flapping is featured in an article entitled:  “A Boy, a Mother and a Rare Map of Autism’s World”. (NY Times, November 19, 2002)

In the article, a 14 year old boy (Tito Mukhopadhyay),  from India with severe autism explains why he flaps his hands: 

“I am calming myself. My senses are so disconnected, I lose my body. So I flap. If I don’t do this, I feel scattered and anxious. I hardly realized that I had a body. I needed constant movement, which made me get the feeling of my body”. 

Tito’s nervous system receives so little input that he cannot sense any connection with his own body. His hand flapping is his attempt to gain body awareness, calm & find himself  himself again.

Carly Fleishman has also given us amazing and credible insight into why people with autism exhibit hand flapping and other 'stim' behaviors. (Find her website here: Carly's Voice.) She talks about auditory filtering and other methods that she uses to block out excess stimuli.

So then if people who have had this direct experience are telling us exactly why they do it, then why are we, as educators, therapists and experts, still insisting that it is not appropriate and prompting them to stop? 

Just as you and I have the freedom to gesture & talk with our hands, shouldn't our Spectrum kids and adults have the freedom to flap?




Related Articles:


Autistic People Should be Free to Flap

Hand Flapping

Understanding Flapping

Why We Move Our Hands When We Talk: Finding the Right Words

Why We Move Our Hands When We Talk: Learning New Concepts






Contact: barbara@bodylogique.com