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Memories of "Spinning in circles" as a child

I'm done with Christmas Cards

I've come across the question "Do/did you like to spin in circles?" many times over the past year or so, and I've always answered "no", but always in the knowledge that I remembered doing it as a child; it's just that I seemed to remember it as something that everyone did. OK, not everyone, but enough people to make it not stand out as odd. I seem to remember it happening in the school playground as "just another thing that us kids did" like play British Bulldog or football or chase round for no discernible reason.

What's your memory of it like?

Maybe the other kids I saw doing it have their own adult autistic diagnosis now! Or maybe it was "something we all did." Or maybe, I have false memories and was the only one doing it!

  • After reading you replies I must have had my memory jogged because now I remember getting told off at primary school (age about 6?) for slapping a teacher's legs. I must have been spinning with my arms out and drifted too close to the teacher who was getting something off a shelf and my hands caught both her calves. It's quite a fuzzy memory to be honest but I seem to remember her slapping my legs in return!

  • When I "spin" it's either clapping/slapping myself (when happy) or 'fiddling' with a pencil (when solving a problem). I do remember getting up and zooming around but social sanction has stopped me from doing it, now I just throw myself at walls. Indeed social sanction has changed some of my harmless, if socially looked down upon spinning/vocalisations into self-injurious stuff which is silent and easily-hidden and therefore does not attract attention from violent/hostile others. Psy-professionals, police, flatmates, classmates and school authorities all fall into the hostile category so of course I cannot seek help from the same guys who went rabidly mad at me for such non-issues as harmlessly slapping my chest when feeling happy or who called me an animal (they meant it literally) simply for saying "ar!"

  • Yeah I used to love this  especially in the play ground, the faster the better, the only thing I liked doing more was head stands, I seemed to spend an awful lot of time against a wall balanced on my hands and head.

  • This particular behaviour is related to something called 'proprioception', people who are diagnosed with Dyspraxia also do it. It is not whether you have done it as a child, but at what frequency, most ASD symptoms are atypical because they occur repetatively.

    For instance, as a child every day, usually between TV breaks, several times a day I would spin around in circles (and flap my arms) and could entertain myself that way for >40 minutes, and would regularly do it to pass the time when bored. The key difference between atypical and neurotypic spinning, is that the atypical child will seem like they are in their own world, and transfixed on the behaviour.

    My sibling would also engage in this but only for a while, whereas I continued longer than normal.

  • I used to LOVE spinning in circles when I was a child, in the playground, in front of the Scout Hut, anywhere really, usually for as long as possible! I also used to love swinging for hours and going on roundabouts as fast and for as long as possible! Hanging upside down from my swing frame was good too! 

    Also, my 2 year old daughter’s current favourite position is upside down! She does headstands anywhere she can and stays that way for as long as she can! She’s only just walking so she doesn’t spin around in circles but she does shake her head from side to side repeatedly, which probably gives a vaguely similar sensation.