Hand flapping is rapidly waving of a child’s hands at the wrist while holding the arms at the elbow. It is like a baby bird trying to take off for the first time.
Why children flapping their hands?
Children may flap their hands when they are in a heightened emotional state such as when they are overly excited. They hand flap to express their emotions. Hand or arm flapping is also one of the odd, repetitive behavior of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Other behavior of ASD aside from hand or arm flapping are kids walking on the toes, spinning and rocking as well as unusual preoccupations, odd speech patterns, lack of eye contact, social and communication difficulty, etc. On the other hand, normal kids flap their hand or arms when they are excited or walk on their toes until they learn to walk well so it means that you cannot diagnose autism just from hand flapping.
Hand flapping that continues more than a few months or that increases may requires further evaluation. Normal child may flap their hands occasionally out of excitement. Talk to your pediatrician and documents all the behaviors of your child for better diagnosis.
How to stop hand flapping behavior?
Hand or arm flapping can be distracted to other people. You can teach your child replacement behaviors that are less harmful, less distracting and less noticeable to other people. These replacement behaviors includes replacing it with clapping hands, squeezing hands together, offering with squeezing ball, stress ball or squeezable or fidget toy to play, give something to eat or chew.