Occupational Therapy at UM

04/09/2026

Understanding finger and hand movements is key to seeing the science behind fine-motor stimming, why it happens, and what it may be telling us. 🌻

💙 A note from me:
James has taught me that small movements carry big reasons. When he is rubbing, tapping, or twisting something in his fingers, it is rarely random—it is his brain finding tactile focus, working through big feelings, or supporting his attention on something else entirely. Learning to look beneath the movement changed how I understand these moments with him.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND FINGER & HAND MOVEMENTS
Understanding fine-motor stimming: why it happens and what it may be telling us.

The movement tells us what is happening. Context helps us understand what it may be doing. The same movement can have different functions at different times.

James is nonspeaking, and his body tells me what he cannot.

WHAT ARE FINGER & HAND MOVEMENTS?
Repetitive finger and hand movements, such as rubbing, tapping, flicking, twisting, rolling objects, or holding specific hand postures, are common in autistic people. These self-initiated actions are often precise, repetitive, and purposeful. Above all, they are a vital form of communication and self-regulation.

WHAT MAY BE HAPPENING INSIDE THE BRAIN
Sensory Processing: Tactile input from the fingers engages sensory brain networks, helping to organize and process information.
Attention & Focus: Predictable sensory input helps sustain concentration and filter out background distractions.
Emotional Regulation: Controllable, predictable movements help regulate arousal levels and ease internal tension.
Reward & Motivation: Engaging the brain's reward pathways makes these movements naturally reinforcing and satisfying.
Body Awareness: Pressing and tapping provide crucial proprioceptive feedback, aiding body awareness and a sense of physical control.

FIVE RESEARCH INFORMED FUNCTIONS
Tactile Focus & Calming: Focused sensory input helps reduce overwhelming external noise.
Proprioceptive Feedback: Activates receptors in the hands to send body position updates directly to the brain.
Reward & Motivation: Provides intrinsic satisfaction, especially during stress, boredom, or joy.
Emotional Regulation: Eases anxiety and releases built up pressure in a controllable way.
Cognitive Support: Reduces internal restlessness, allowing the mind to focus on learning or tasks.

WHEN TO LOOK CLOSER
Stimming is natural, but pause to evaluate if you notice:
A sudden change from their usual movement pattern
Movements accompanied by distress, urgency, or compulsivity
Signs of pain, discomfort, or illness
Interference with daily life or basic well being
A drastic, unexplained spike or drop in frequency

WHAT ADULTS CAN DO
Observe without judgment.
Seek to understand the context and possible function.
Reduce environmental noise and overwhelming demands.
Offer safe fidgets or fine-motor tools proactively.
Create predictability and steady routine.
Support independence and genuine self-regulation.

IMPORTANT REMINDER
The same movement can serve entirely different functions at different times. It is never about stopping the movement—it is about understanding what it is telling us. Look beneath the surface: it is almost always a sign of regulation, comfort, or communication.

TRAUMA INFORMED GUIDANCE FOR CAREGIVERS
Watch the whole context (antecedents, environment, body tension) rather than reacting to the movement alone.
Recognize that one movement can support calming, focus, and emotional processing all at once. Let context guide you, not assumption.
Treat sudden changes or distress as a reason to look closer—not to intervene automatically.
Offer safe fine-motor tools proactively to support regulation before things escalate.
Celebrate these movements as genuine self-regulation, not something to suppress or correct.

TRAUMA INFORMED GUIDANCE FOR PROFESSIONALS
Approach hand movements as multi-functional rather than assuming a single cause.
Observe context consistently (antecedents, environment, intensity, body tension).
Reserve closer investigation for sudden pattern shifts, pain, or distress—not everyday stimming.
Lower environmental demands and provide safe tools instead of asking the movement to stop.
Frame these actions to colleagues and families as a normal, human form of communication that deserves full respect.

RESEARCH BASE
Charlton, R. A., Entecott, T., Belova, E., & Nwaordu, G. (2021). "It feels like holding back something you need to say": Autistic and non-autistic adults' accounts of sensory experiences and stimming. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 89, 101864.
Lock Man Lung, S., Picard, È., Soulières, I., & Bertone, A. (2024). Identifying the functions of restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests in Autism: A scoping review. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 117, 102458.

Real understanding leads to real support.

Connection over correction.

Understanding over expectation. 💙

See beyond the surface. 🌻

Support the nervous system. 🌻

What context helps you understand what your child, student, or client's movements are doing in a given moment?

Drop a 💙 and share below!

📢 PLEASE SHARE
Every share helps reach occupational therapists, teachers, doctors, SENCOs, and parent carers who need to see these movements as meaningful communication. Save this for team training or share it with your community today! 💛

Save this for your team 🌻 Five functions: tactile focus, proprioceptive feedback, reward and motivation, emotional regulation, cognitive support. Look beneath the movement, it's often regulation, comfort, or communication. Please share to reach an OT, teacher, doctor, or SENCO today. 💛

Please follow Nonspeaking Autism for more neurodiversity affirming insights. Because understanding over expectation changes everything.

© Nonspeaking Autism 💙 2026

04/09/2026

Being able to do the simplest of everyday tasks is a real challenge for most of our clients. Our role is to break activities into manageable parts and analyze their component parts.

Then begins the process of trying the smaller parts individually till all parts are connected to do the task in its entirety. It’s not about occupying people, it’s about facilitating occupations.

Each small achievement is a big win and a step towards new found independence which is, after all, how all of us wish to live.

04/09/2026

Attention all OT students.

03/09/2026

Maybe We Don't Have a Stress Problem. Maybe We Have a Life Design Problem.

We have become very good at teaching people how to cope with lives that are making them miserable.

Feeling overwhelmed? Try mindfulness.

Burnt out? Take some leave.

Can't switch off? Try meditation.

Exhausted? Book a wellness weekend.

Sunday evening anxiety? Practise breathing exercises.

Struggling emotionally? Go to therapy.

And I say this as a therapist: all of these things can help. Therapy can be transformative. Exercise matters. Rest matters. Mindfulness has evidence behind it. Learning how to regulate ourselves is important.

But I think there is a question we are avoiding.

What if sometimes the problem isn't that we aren't coping well enough?

What if the problem is what we are trying to cope with? Think about the life many of us now consider normal.

Wake up already thinking about work. Rush through breakfast. Traffic. Work all day. Messages throughout the day. Emails after work. Traffic again. Children to pick up. Activities. Shopping. Dinner. Laundry. Parents to check on. Bills to pay.

Try to exercise because that's important for your mental health. Try to maintain friendships because that's important too. Make time for your partner. Remember to practise self care. Sleep eight hours. Eat properly. Develop yourself. Be present. Be productive. Be a good parent. Be a good partner. Be successful.
And somehow, relax.

Then we wonder why people are exhausted.

Perhaps one of the strangest things about modern life is that we have turned recovery from our lifestyle into another task within our lifestyle.

We schedule relaxation. We track our sleep. We measure our steps. We book wellness weekends months in advance. We fly abroad because we “need a break”. Then we return on Sunday evening and by Tuesday we desperately need another one.

At what point do we stop asking, “How can I manage my stress better?” and start asking:
“Why have I designed a life I constantly need to recover from?”

That question is much more uncomfortable.

Because a breathing exercise takes five minutes. Changing your life might require saying no.

It might require disappointing someone. It might mean earning less. Changing jobs. Reducing commitments. Having a difficult conversation with your partner. Stopping an activity your children don't actually need.

Accepting that you cannot simultaneously maximise your career, income, parenting, social life, fitness, relationship, travel and personal development. It might even require questioning our definition of success. And that is much harder than downloading another meditation app.

I see another danger here. We can accidentally individualise problems that are partly environmental.

If someone is working unreasonable hours, permanently contactable, financially stretched, sleeping badly and carrying enormous responsibilities, teaching them resilience may help. But there is something almost absurd about teaching somebody to become increasingly resilient to circumstances that perhaps should change.

Sometimes anxiety is not simply a malfunction to eliminate. Sometimes exhaustion is information. Sometimes resentment is information. Sometimes that feeling on Sunday evening is information.

Not every uncomfortable emotion needs to dictate our decisions. But neither should every uncomfortable emotion immediately be managed away. Perhaps sometimes our bodies are telling us something our calendars refuse to acknowledge.

This is not an argument against ambition. I believe deeply in pushing ourselves. Meaningful goals require sacrifice. Building something worthwhile can be stressful. Parenthood is demanding. Careers have difficult periods. A fulfilling life is not necessarily an easy life.

There is a huge difference, however, between chosen difficulty in service of something meaningful and chronic exhaustion in service of a life we no longer know why we are living.

Maybe that's the distinction we need to recover.

Not:

“How do I remove all stress from my life?”

But:

“Is the stress I am carrying taking me somewhere I actually want to go?”

Because perhaps burnout isn't always asking us for a holiday. Perhaps sometimes it is asking us to reconsider the architecture of our lives.

Look at your own week. Your Monday morning. Your Wednesday evening. Your Sunday night. Not your holidays. Not your Instagram photographs. Not the two weeks of the year when you escape your normal routine.

Your ordinary Tuesday. Because ultimately, our lives are mostly made up of ordinary Tuesdays. And if you repeatedly need therapy, alcohol, scrolling, shopping, food, holidays, wellness weekends or the promise of Friday simply to tolerate them, perhaps the most important question isn't how to cope better.

It might be:

What exactly am I building, and is the life I'm building one I actually want to live?

31/08/2026