Why We Chew And What Stimming Is

Are you a chewer or maybe you have a child that chews? Have you ever wondered why? Perhaps you’ve tried to stop chewing, but it didn’t work? That’s because chewing is a very common stim, and stimming is an essential part of self-regulation and related to our sensory processing system.

It ’s quite common for autistic people and people with sensory difficulties to have problems with their sensory system. It’s all to do with our senses and how our brain responds to the messages they send us.

We Have 5 Senses, Right?

Wrong! We are commonly taught that we have five senses:

Sight
Sound
Smell
Taste
Touch

Actually, we have 8.

The three less commonly known senses are:

Interoception

This is understanding what is going on inside of our bodies. Interoception lets us know if we are hungry or thirsty or if we need to go to the toilet. People who are struggling with interoception may forget to eat or struggle with potty training or remembering to go to the toilet.

Vestibular

Vestibular is our sense of balance and spatial awareness. The vestibular purpose is coordination movement and balance. If you struggle with vestibular, you may have problems riding a bike.

Proprioception

That’s our body awareness, knowing which parts of our body do what and where our limbs are in space. The proprioceptive system forms sensory input that sends messages to the muscles and joints in our bodies. That is how we know where our limbs are in relation to objects and people. If you struggle with proprioception, you may struggle with things like catching a ball or bang into people.

So why is this important to chewing?

If someone has difficulties with their proprioceptive system, it can cause problems with movement and levels of arousal. Some people struggle to process some, or all of their senses. That’s because the signals go to the brain, but they get jumbled up before the brain forms the appropriate response. This can cause incorrect sensory signals being sent to the muscles in your oral sensory system and can cause the need to bite or chew.

It can also cause a sensory overload.

Sensory overload is where one or more of the senses is experiences over stimulation to the environment.

Sensory overload can cause stress, anxiety and fear and lots of other unwanted behaviours such as:

Irritability
Lack of focus
Covering eyes and ears
Shouting
Screaming
Biting
Chewing

Everyone will experience sensory overload differently.

If you can catch it before you go too far, self-regulating and stimming can help.

Stimming is self-stimulatory behaviour which is repetitive movements, moving objects, sounds and words.

People stim in different ways, but some of the more common stims are:

Hand flapping
Clapping
Rocking
Chewing
Pacing
Spinning
Humming
Singing
Repeating words or phrases

Stimming is self-regulating and really important. It happens when we need to regulate the proprioceptive system. By regulating the system, it can help us to feel calm, safe and organised.

Chewing is a common stim, so addressing the need to chew is very important.

We can support the need to chew by trying some oral proprioceptive activities like:

Blowing bubbles
Blowing whistles
Blowing through straws
Chewing gum
Eating crunchy foods like carrots
Sucking on boiled sweets
Bouncing on trampolines
Sucking yoghurts and milkshakes through a straw
And chewigems
Chewing is such a great way to calm and organise the sensory system.

The good thing about Chewigems is that they are portable. Pop them in your bag, around your neck and take them everywhere!

Chewing is a great way to calm the sensory system, self regulate and stim!

We are big fans of Chewigem, so thanks to them for letting us share their blog.