The word “stimming” refers to self-stimulating behaviors, usually involving repetitive movements or sounds.
Everybody stims in some way. It’s not always clear to others.
Stimming is part of the diagnostic criteria for autism. That’s not because stimming is always related to autism. It’s because stimming in autistic people can get out of control and cause problems. But stimming isn’t necessarily a bad thing that needs to be stifled, in fact It’s a coping mechanism that can serve a variety of purposes.
For example, an autistic person may be trying to:
Stimulate the senses or decrease sensory overload, adapt to an unfamiliar environment, reduce anxiety and calm themselves, express frustration, especially if they have trouble communicating effectively and avoid certain activities or expectations.
The aim of this social design project was to raise awareness about stimming, to identify the neurotypical subject in the sensations that an autistic individual can feel through the actions of stimming, demonstrating that these actions are not only dangerous, because stereotypes are almost always self-stimulating and are necessary to control and manage the overload of emotions.
Thanks to Steven K Kap’s experiment, it has been found that the most common movements of stimming can be synthesized in three verbs:
rocking, shaking and tightening.
These three most common actions of stimming then became graphic signs, which were designed using geometric shapes to generate the visual transfiguration of the feeling caused by a certain action.
The evocative graphic signs were then inserted in posters, designed to educate, inform and stigmatize stimulating stereotyping, namely stimming.
Everybody stims in some way. It’s not always clear to others.
Stimming is part of the diagnostic criteria for autism. That’s not because stimming is always related to autism. It’s because stimming in autistic people can get out of control and cause problems. But stimming isn’t necessarily a bad thing that needs to be stifled, in fact It’s a coping mechanism that can serve a variety of purposes.
For example, an autistic person may be trying to:
Stimulate the senses or decrease sensory overload, adapt to an unfamiliar environment, reduce anxiety and calm themselves, express frustration, especially if they have trouble communicating effectively and avoid certain activities or expectations.
The aim of this social design project was to raise awareness about stimming, to identify the neurotypical subject in the sensations that an autistic individual can feel through the actions of stimming, demonstrating that these actions are not only dangerous, because stereotypes are almost always self-stimulating and are necessary to control and manage the overload of emotions.
Thanks to Steven K Kap’s experiment, it has been found that the most common movements of stimming can be synthesized in three verbs:
rocking, shaking and tightening.
These three most common actions of stimming then became graphic signs, which were designed using geometric shapes to generate the visual transfiguration of the feeling caused by a certain action.
The evocative graphic signs were then inserted in posters, designed to educate, inform and stigmatize stimulating stereotyping, namely stimming.
