A motor stereotypy is a recurring repetitive movement that appears very intentional but serves no clear external purpose. A complex motor stereotypy is a type of motor stereotypy that involves many muscle groups (for example: the face, neck, shoulders, and arms). There is a very wide range of what stereotypies can look like. Complex Motor Stereotypies (CMS) is also often diagnosed as Stereotypic Movement Disorder (SMD). CMS can be primary, meaning the CMS alone is the main diagnosis, or secondary, meaning the CMS is occurring as a symptom of another condition, such as autism. CMS/SMD is a completely benign condition.
Children with CMS/SMD usually cannot control their stereotypies and aren’t aware they do them. People with CMS/SMD become aware of and learn to control their stereotypies with age. CMS can be triggered by emotions or thought processes, and the specific triggers will vary from person to person. Usually people with CMS/SMD can be distracted from or “pulled out of” the stereotypy if their name is called, if someone taps them on the shoulder, or something similar. That being said, since the stereotypy isn’t harmful, there is typically no reason to do this, and being frequently prevented from doing their stereotypy can be very frustrating for people with CMS/SMD. |
A stereotypy is an unvoluntary repetitive motion with no discernable purpose. They differ from motor tics in that they are usually done while engrosed in tasks, and there is no premptive feeling that they are going to be done. Examples include: Leg bouncing, rocking back and forth, biting nails, and hand flapping.
Complex tells what kind of movement it is. Complex sterotypies usually involve the arms and hands, happen bilaterally (equally on both sides of the body), and don’t change over time (unlike, say, sucking your thumb which might go away and be replaced with biting your nails which might be replaced with bouncing your leg, and so on.). They are also usually rather complex in nature. Examples of complex motor sterotypies include hand flapping, and finger wiggling. For more information, a good resource is the John Hopkins site, which can be found here: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/centers_clinics/pediatric-neurology/conditions/motor-stereotypies/ |