Skipping, pacing, rocking, flapping - Stereotypic Movement Disorder

by Gilly Robinson
(Devon, UK)

I have a 15-year-old daughter who has engaged in repetitive skipping up and down in our house throughout her life.

It only really became a problem for us when my neighbour in the flat downstairs reported us to the local district council (because of the noise her skipping caused) and we ended up with a Noise Abatement Order served against us, even though they recognised my daughter was not being 'noisy' deliberately. This was obviously very distressing, particularly when our GP had said there was nothing wrong with my daughter, because (regardless of the regular, repeated skipping I reported at home) she was able to sit still in the surgery.

It was only through a link on another posting on this site that I came across the term 'Complex Primary Motor Stereotypies', more commonly called 'Stereotypic Movement Disorder'. The most common Do google it. John Hopkins Medical Centre in the US is carrying out research on the behaviours, and it is included in the DSM-V manual.

I'd be very interested to hear of any others where skipping is the predominant behaviour.