stimmer

English

Etymology

From stim (“to perform a repetitive self-stimulating action”) +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

stimmer (plural stimmers)

1. (psychology, autism) One who engages in stimming behaviour.
   • 2006, Donna Satterlee Ross, Kelly Ann Jolly, editors, That's Life with Autism: Tales and Tips for Families with Autism‎, page 125:

     Most people probably wouldn't guess either of them had autism since they are both so high functioning; Dillon is a “stimmer” though—lots of hand flapping.

   • 2010, Mark Osteen, One of Us: A Family's Life with Autism‎, page 148:

     Cam is a first-class stimmer. The stims have passed through stages, each more obsessive than the last.

   • 2021, Erin Felepchuk, “Stimming, Improvisation, and COVID-19: (Re)negotiating Autistic Sensory Regulation During a Pandemic”, in Disability Studies Quarterly, volume 41, number 3:

     We are also perpetual stimmers: displaying or masking our stims, engaging in self-injurious or artistic stims, creatively expressing ourselves, or responding to trauma or stim suppression.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:stimmer.

Anagrams

• misterm, Timmers, timmers