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Stimming Is Vital To Your Child’s Emotional Regulation.
How to build or break lasting connections with your children.
Many children use stimming behaviours to regulate their emotions. When we are left to stim as children, we strengthen our ability to self-soothe, and increase our oxytocin levels (“the trust and love hormone”).
Increased oxytocin levels translate to stronger emotional bonds with others and an increased capacity for trust and love, right through to adulthood and beyond. Let’s not forget that these traits are genetically transmittable too.
Parents that prevent their children from stimming are preventing their children from developing the skills they need to regulate their emotions, particularly around love and trust.
Children prevented from stimming also fail to develop a strong bond with that parent, feeling like they’re not living up to unnecessarily high standards interpreted by the child as not being loved for who they are.
Parents that prevent their children from stimming will likely micromanage the most minute details of a child’s thoughts, actions, and behaviours, becoming a barrier to that child’s growth.