Why does my nephew with Asperger's act so weird?

He bends up his arms to his ears and makes yelling noises and baby-type noises, sometimes for hours on end. Sometimes he is trying to talk and he keeps doing this. The psych. said it was from excitement but he does it in normal, calm times. When outside he stands by the road and does it. It is so embarrassing. He is not obsessed with any objects or spinning things, etc. but he is always stuck on being a cartoon character. He is never just himself. One day he just said the same thing over and over that was from a cartoon and nothing I would do would stop him. He is 5 but 3, socially. Would Ritalin stop his hand/yelling thing- he is also so hyper. He is going to early intervention this year and I don't know how he will learn without some sort of med. He is very smart but is hyper and seems so distressed. My daughter has PDD-NOS and has a problem with obsessing/talking non stop and has anxiety and Paxil helps her greatly but I think nephew is too young for it.Why does my nephew with Asperger's act so weird?
What your nephew is most likely doing when he does that is stimming. Stimming is repetitive self-stimulating behavior that is common on the autism spectrum. Stimming may involve any or all of the senses in various degrees in different individuals. Examples of stimming behaviors are flapping hands, bouncing legs, rocking, snapping fingers, grunting, repeating the same sound or word, smelling things, licking things, staring at lights, banging head and many more. Each individual stims differently and may have a few different stimming behaviors, which each has a specific purpose.



Stimming is a coping mechanism. Most often it's a way for the person to deal with sensory issues they're having, but it can also be used to cope with stress, excitement or communication difficulties, among other things. Stimming can be soothing.



On the outside, stimming may seem like just an annoying, unnecessary behavior, but to the person doing it it serves a specific, important purpose, which may be difficult for another person to identify or understand.



Maybe your nephew does this because he is overwhelmed with the noise outside or some other sensory input.



It is not a good idea to try to ban the stimming or force your nephew to stop it, but it is often possible to learn to deal with it in other ways. If you find out why he does it, you may be able to find ways to avoid it. For example, if he is overwhelmed by noise outside, give him earphones and let him listen to music when you're outside, to block out some of the noise. It is also possible to teach children when it is acceptable to stim and when it is not. Many aspies, as they grow older, avoid stimming in public, but continue to stim in privacy or when they are at home. Your nephew is young and it will take some time to teach him or find a way to deal with this behavior, so be patient. Don't focus on how embarrassing you find his behavior, but on what you can do to deal with it in a way that is good for everyone.



I bumped into the following quote on a website earlier and I couldn't agree with it more.



"If stimming does not interfere substantially with an autistic person's ability to do things he or she needs or wants to do, or does not cause harm to self or others, then acceptance is what is needed. ABA and other techniques aimed at eliminating stimming behaviors solely for the purpose of reducing socially unacceptable physical movements, with the real goal being making non-autistic people more comfortable (reducing non-autistic "embarassment" etc.), is not respectful of the autistic person's ways of being in the world and need for such behavior to regulate sensory input.

鈥擯aula Durbin-Westby" (taken from http://autism.about.com/u/ua/parentingau鈥?/a>