Why Do Babies Always Try to Put Their Arms Down Peiples Shirts
"My 6-year-sometime is a squeezer," says Amanda Ponzar, of Alexandria, Virginia. "He used to clasp the flabby underarm of every lady he encountered: Me, his grandma, his teachers." Sometimes he'd accidentally squeeze too hard, or sometimes he'd squeeze a stranger. "I was always apologizing for him, and his father punished him," says Ponzar. "Nosotros didn't know why he was doing this."
Erin Haskell'southward daughter is a rocker. "E'er since Mollie was two, she would lie down with her hands clasped together over her chest and rock back and forth for a good xx minutes before she went to slumber. I didn't know what to make of it," says Haskell, of Windham, Maine. "I was worried enough that I brought information technology up at her well visits until she was 8 years old."
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Me? I've got a mouther. I'm always barking at my oldest to take the Lego, the remote, or the random bit of a deconstructed action effigy out of his mouth. And he'southward not a baby. Far from information technology. He'due south nearing tweendom, and even so, still, Legos in the mouth all the fourth dimension. Your child? Mayhap she constantly fidgets with her backpack Beanie Boo, or sniffs an quondam blimp animal, similar, a lot, or spins in circles a little besides long for your condolement.
These "quirks" ofttimes baffle, irritate, embarrass, and legit worry parents. "Present, if you search 'rocking dorsum and along,' you lot may land on a website about mental illness. Or y'all describe a few quirky behaviors on a parenting board, and the next thing you know, a 'helpful' mom is diagnosing your child with autism, sensory-processing disorder, or feet," says Lindsey Biel, a pediatric occupational therapist and coauthor of Raising a Sensory Smart Child. While no one wants to rewind to a time when parents weren't aware of early symptoms of neurological differences, the pendulum has no uncertainty bonked a few simply-apparently-quirky kids as it's swung to the other extreme.
In fact, up to 70 percent of typically developing kids engage in repetitive and seemingly purposeless movements like leg shaking, nail biting, or hair twirling, according to a 2018 report in the journal Seminars in Pediatric Neurology. And not only are these quirks normal (hello, what adult doesn't do at least one of these things), but kids have them for a reason: They're a way to self-regulate one'due south senses.
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"Once you empathize why your child is doing what she's doing and the purpose it serves, you'll no longer await at it as a quirky habit but every bit behavior with a purpose," says Amanda Bennett, M.D., a developmental pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Sucking on Things
"Kids who gravitate toward mouthing, chewing, and sucking may be doing then because their mouth is somewhat undersensitive," says Biel. In other words, your shirt sucker may have decreased oral sensory sensitivity and require more than in-the-rima oris input to satisfy that need. "For these kids, information technology's likely that this mouthing behavior releases feel-expert, soothing neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which help them experience calm, less bored, and more than engaged," explains Biel.
Mouthers are often the same kids who drooled past childhood, experienced a speech delay, or are messy eaters, says Biel. "They often accept trouble mastering precise movements of their lips and mouth because they only don't procedure those tactile sensations likewise as other children."
While these behaviors are by and large harmless, you'll want to brainstorm and redirect if your child's chewie du jour is a germ fest, a choking hazard, or otherwise harmful. For instance, if thumb or finger sucking continues across historic period 2 to four, information technology can affect the shape of a child's rima oris or cause an ortho issue like an overbite, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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"When I spot my own 10-year-old daughter chewing a necklace or a pen cap mindlessly while watching TV, I try to call back to hand her a piece of gum—not snap at her to stop," says Dr. Bennett. "Gum fulfills the aforementioned oral need, which is probably why many progressive schools now allow kids to chew gum in grade." Not only is mucilage chewing a safe culling for the over-4 set, just the act increases alertness and enhances cognition, according to a study in the Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Enquiry.
There's a existent reason she wants y'all to spin her around again and again.
| Credit: Priscilla Gragg
Rocking and Spinning
While a kiddo who rocks herself to slumber may seem worlds autonomously from one who spins in circles after a long 24-hour interval of schoolhouse, she's not. Both are working hard to jostle the fluid, the hairs, and the tiny calcium-carbonate crystals in their inner ears that make up the vestibular arrangement, which monitors move and rest, says Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., clinical manager of STAR Establish for Sensory Processing Disorder, in Greenwood Village, Colorado.
Kids who naturally stone, spin, swing, or bounce likely accept a vestibular organization that requires more than motility than about because they have a lower-than-average sensitivity to the stimuli. The key with these quirks? Knowing when enough is enough. "There's something chosen an inverted U-curve," says Dr. Miller. "When a child spins, her arousal goes up and her ability to stay at-home and focused improves. That is, until she gets to the top of the bend, when arousal continues to get up but performance goes downwards."
Going overboard can bring on both immediate and delayed sensory-overload problems. "It's of import to piece of work with your child, and mayhap an occupational therapist, to pinpoint the superlative of the bend," says Dr. Miller. For instance, you may want to limit your spinner to 1 revolution a 2d for no more than ten revolutions, and so switch directions. "Stopping and restarting benefits kids by giving the nearly information to their vestibular receptors, which procedure motion information," says Biel. It'southward also smart to have special toys at home that fulfill your child'southward sensory needs, like a hobbyhorse, a rocking Rody rider, a Dizzy Disc Jr., or a Sit 'n Spin.
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While Mollie all the same rocks to settle down for bed (she curbs her quirk on sleepovers), her mom jokingly wonders whether Mollie volition exist rocking her way into college and across. Chances are, she won't. Every bit rockers and spinners age, their habits frequently morph likewise. "Ane of my young clients was a bouncer and bed roller, and she wound upwardly going to college on an equestrian scholarship," says Biel. "Similar a lot of kids, she turned to athletics that offered her a lot of whole-body sensory input, including stimulation of the vestibular arrangement, deep pressure level, and joint compression." Besides horseback riding, gymnastics and swimming have a like effect.
Sniffing Things
My kiddo is also a sniffer. He's been carrying around a stuffed duck since forever. He snuggles that old bird upward to his nose and inhales deep yoga-worthy breaths. Biel isn't surprised by my son'due south continued dearest of the lovey. "Does he do it when he's sleepy or when he's upset?" she asks me. Yes and yeah.
"Smell is the ane sensory system that connects straight with the limbic arrangement, which is the emotion, retentiveness, and pleasure middle of the brain," says Biel. "Information technology'southward all about clan, and kids oftentimes sniff things that conjure up pleasant memories that they observe comforting."
These soothing smells can only help a child experience more safe and secure—or relaxed enough to facilitate slumber. And when y'all think nigh it, we all have throwback smells that we turn to for an olfactory hug of sorts. "It'due south why realtors apply the olfactory property of apple pie to help sell homes," says Biel. "It's merely that some kids are looking for more sensory information than others; they're hyposensitive and sometimes seek out smells that aren't traditionally considered comforting, like Play-Doh or crayons."
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Fidgeting
"Touching, feeling, squeezing, poking, hair twirling, and all other similar forms of fidgeting generate sensations that feed a kid'southward hunger for affect—and ofttimes his need for a very specific blazon of pocket-size movement also," says Dr. Miller. The body releases the feel-skilful neurotransmitter oxytocin in response to finger and hand tactile-seeking movements, similar repeatedly touching a soft tag or gently stroking one's hair, co-ordinate to one study in the periodical Frontiers in Psychology.
Across the calming effect, fidgeting can help kids concentrate too. "We know that all children movement more during challenging mental activities than they practise during ones that are less challenging," says Michael J. Kofler, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Florida Land Academy, in Tallahassee. "Children are using small-scale movements to stimulate their encephalon. For some kids, particularly those with ADHD, the fidgeting helps keep their brain engaged and bolsters working memory."
Notwithstanding, the once-pop fidget spinner has actually been establish to practise the opposite. "When kids use fidget spinners in the classroom, they're actually more distracted," says Dr. Kofler.
It'due south important to find a style to fidget that actually works for your child—without disrupting grade. "We were lucky," recalls Ponzar, mom of the serial arm squeezer. "My son'southward preschool teachers took it upon themselves to make homemade squeeze balloons filled with baking soda. They kept them in their frock pockets and handed ane to my son when he needed to squeeze." And his arm squeezing came to a stop—nearly.
"Sometimes when he sits in his fuzzy bluish bean-purse chair while we're reading a story, he'll start to knead my arm once again," says Ponzar. "I'll say, 'Let's get your squeezy balloon,' and information technology's a quick gear up. He loves that balloon so much, he sleeps with it nether his pillow."
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When A Quirk Is A Bigger Deal
If your child'due south behavior interferes with his everyday functioning—say, he'southward so bothered by noise that he hates recess or won't ride the school jitney—information technology could be a sign of a sensory-processing disorder, says Sara O'Rourke, an occupational therapist at Nationwide Children's Infirmary, in Columbus, Ohio. Kids with the condition can't respond accordingly to the signals coming from their senses, while those with normal quirks take constitute a manner to self-regulate.
If y'all're concerned, talk to your child's pediatrician, who tin refer you to an occupational therapist for strategies. And go on in mind: It'south okay if you're embarrassed by your child's quirk.
"That's a valid feeling that parents experience," says Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, of STAR Found. "We want our kids to fit in, and we don't want others to judge them." While a quirk itself is likely no biggie to children, one report in the Seminars in Pediatric Neurology found that their frustration mounts when their parents and teachers try to end their behavior.
And so before you practice, ask yourself: Is my kid embarrassed? If non, and the quirk doesn't interfere with other aspects of life, ignore it and know that other kids fulfill their sensory needs too. Kind of similar how yous chew glue instead of putting Legos in your mouth.
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Source: https://www.parents.com/kids/development/behavioral/kids-sensory-development/
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