CMS: The most misunderstood childhood challenge you've never heard of
by Tara Shafer posted in Parenting
One rainy afternoon one of my children's teachers called to bring my attention to an atypical classroom behavior. She said that my child would sometimes suddenly start intensely moving their hands and arms in apparent excitement. At times, they'd bring their fingers close to their face, and a certain rigidity around the mouth set in. (I knew what she meant and I would describe the optics as almost seizure-like).
This teacher reminded me that this child was a friend to all in the classroom, loved the challenge of learning, enjoyed imaginative play, and demonstrated tremendous empathy and leadership qualities.
Because she was a particularly talented educator, she wanted to make me aware so that I could respond if something neurological was beginning to manifest. There was no judgment beyond that. To be sure, we took all necessary measures to rule out serious underlying causes. Once we were able to rule things out, I knew exactly what we were dealing with.
I mentioned this to a friend. ?Oh,? she said with a twinkle in her eye. ?Jazz hands, right"?
Yes. But more. She was keeping it light. I was worried. I was worried about bullies. I was scared that people would tease my child as they had once teased me, when, as a child, I demonstrated precisely the same behaviors.
These movements are called complex motor stereotypies (CMS). As described by researchers at Johns Hopkins, these are:
"[R]hythmic, repetitive, fixed, predictable, pur...
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