Our Zoe has always held objects and shook them in a rapid motion. We have come to refer to this as ‘twiddling’.

We have not discouraged this behaviour within the confines of the house, but over a long period of time we have managed to enforce the belief that twiddling is not something that Zoe does at school or whilst out shopping or when visiting the dentist etc.

Zoe does draw huge comfort from this hand action, and it would be very cruel to deny her this comfort. The twiddling does manifest itself every single day, from when she wakes to when she goes to bed. However, it should be stated that Zoe knows to drop her twiddles at meal times, when she goes to the toilet and most important of all, when she goes to bed. This is important as she would not go to sleep.