What are some things we can do to cut down on Mouthing or licking stim behaviour. My son is 5 and stim’s constantly. I feel guilty when i see this and cannot devote 100% of my time to him(wish i could). Not to mention the cell phone’s and remote-controls he has wetted to death. Presently he responds briefly to saying(hand’s down). We constantly offer some sort of activity to him, but he always incorporates self stimulation. I know if we can reduce this behaviour we can feed his brain more what it needs.
I don’t know what can be done about that. My son does that too. He always wants to put everything in his mouth, or at least lick it. And he constantly wants to eat too, which I think is part of that “stim issue”. All I can do is tell him no, or take it out of your mouth. He’s 6, and he knows he’s not supposed to do it, but he just does it with out thinking. I thought about letting him chew gum, but he always swallows it. I wish I knew what to do too.
My son mouths my face and objects as well. There are these thick rubbery objects called Q’s that are working some of the time. I attach it to his clothing and he can walk around with. He can just bite it when he needs to. It does not work all the time but does help quite a bit. This is why he is still attached to the bottle I believe-the need to bite and chew.
You can find the Q’s online under occupational therapy items.
Alexandra
My son is pretty good about not putting stuff in his mouth. I never gave him bottle or pacifiers, so that might had made the difference. However, he’ll put his arms up and starts to sort of “kiss” the sleeve of whatever he’s wearing… that’s how he puts himself to sleep. But even then, when I tell him to put his arm down he obeys for the most part.
At therapy, they gave him something called “chewy”. It’s like a little rubber in the shape of a hammer. We don’t use it because I feel like it would just reinforce the behavior. It’s that really a NEED that they have?