E083 · Sensory experience, body & daily living
Repetitive movements, sounds or actions
What might be happening when a young person repeatedly uses particular movements, sounds or actions, and what function might those repetitions serve for them?
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Overview
People repeat actions for many reasons.
A young person might repeatedly:
- rock
- flap their hands
- bounce
- pace
- spin
- tap
- hum
- make sounds
- repeat phrases
- manipulate an object
- watch the same movement
- perform a familiar action sequence.
Some communities commonly use the term stimming for repetitive sensory or motor activity.
Historically, repetitive behaviours have often been treated primarily as things to reduce.
That starting assumption is unsafe.
Repetition can serve important functions, including:
- regulation
- sensory organisation
- enjoyment
- emotional expression
- concentration
- predictability
- coping with anxiety
- communication.
A 2024 scoping review of repetitive behaviours and interests in autistic people identified functions including sensory regulation, coping with anxiety, increasing certainty and helping people make sense of their world. (1)
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What this might look like
A young person might:
- rock when concentrating
- flap when excited
- pace when thinking
- hum or vocalise repeatedly
- repeat a preferred movement
- manipulate the same object rhythmically
- repeat words or sounds
- seek repetition when overwhelmed
- increase repetitive activity during excitement or distress
- use movement to settle after demanding situations
- suppress these actions in public and use them more strongly in private
- describe the activity as enjoyable or necessary.
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Developmental expression
At this stage
Early childhood
Repetition is a normal feature of development and play. Adults should be particularly cautious about pathologising repetitive activity in young children.
Early childhood
Repetition is a normal feature of development and play. Adults should be particularly cautious about pathologising repetitive activity in young children.
Middle childhood
Social expectations around appearing still or typical may make repetitive actions increasingly visible as a difference.
Early adolescence
Peer judgement can increase pressure to suppress visible repetition.
Later adolescence
Young people may make increasingly deliberate decisions about where, when and whether they want to express or conceal repetitive activity.
Choose each stage to see how the presentation and surrounding expectations may change over time.
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Strengths and differences
Repetitive activity may support:
- concentration
- regulation
- joy
- self-expression
- sensory organisation
- predictability
- creativity
- connection with interests.
The fact that a behaviour looks unusual to another person is not itself a reason to intervene.
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Top tips for support
- Ask what the repetition does for the young person.
- Do not stop harmless repetitive activity merely because it looks different.
- Protect the young person from ridicule.
- Allow appropriate space for movement or sound.
- Notice changes in frequency or intensity, as these may communicate stress.
- If an action causes injury or prevents something the young person wants to do, seek safer alternatives that preserve its function.
- Never make appearing neurotypical the intervention outcome.
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Things needing careful planning
Repetitive movements should not automatically be assumed to be stimming.
Other possibilities can include:
- tics
- compulsions
- motor stereotypies
- pain responses
- medication effects
- neurological or movement conditions.
A new or unusual movement pattern, injury, pain or significant physical change may need appropriate health assessment.
Where repetitive activity causes significant injury or prevents access to something the young person themselves values, support may be warranted.
But the intervention target should be harm or restriction, not difference.
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Practical support principles
Support can include:
- allowing safe repetitive movement
- identifying regulation functions
- providing suitable environments
- offering alternative forms only where needed
- reducing conditions that increase distress
- protecting dignity
- collaboratively identifying safer equivalents where injury occurs
- ensuring communication remains accessible.
From understanding to support
Phoenix Atlas connections
Often useful
- sensory/regulation approaches
- environmental adaptation
- low-arousal practice
- strengths-based neurodiversity-affirming practice
Worth considering
- functional assessment where behaviour causes harm
- occupational-therapy input
- specialist medical assessment for unexplained movement.
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Evidence and cautions
The 2024 scoping review found that repetitive behaviours and interests can serve adaptive and regulatory roles rather than functioning solely as symptoms to suppress. (1)
This is a particularly clear place for our Phoenix principles:
Phoenix doesn't reject intervention; it subjects intervention itself to formulation.
And:
We are interested in generalising capability, not generalising compliance.
An intervention that successfully stops harmless repetitive movement while increasing distress would not count as straightforward success within Phoenix.
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Public evidence sources
- Functions of repetitive behaviours and interests in autistic people — scoping review.
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Possible explanatory lenses
Relevant possibilities include:
- sensory regulation
- emotional regulation
- enjoyment
- anxiety
- predictability
- concentration
- autistic stimming
- tic disorders
- compulsive processes
- motor stereotypies.
About this entry’s source
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Source status describes the underlying material. The current site edition is Open Beta; the evidence notes and limitations remain part of the entry.