Visual stimming and autistic joy

I'd like to talk about autism, stimming and autistic joy, starting with visual stimming.

Below are some of the types of visual stimming, that can bring joy, relief or a sense of satisfaction for autistic people. However these can be misunderstood and seen as 'behaviour' which is pathologized.

For example some visual stims such as lining things up, putting things in a specific order, such as by number, or turning light switches on and off can be presumed to be OCD behaviour.

Whilst for some this may be the case, for many autistic people it will be something they are doing as it brings them joy. It is important we know the intent of 'behaviour' that we are encouraging autistic people to change. Is their action linked to distress or is the action linked to internal sensory joy.

It is necessary that we know so that we are not encouraging the repression of autistic joy.