stimming
v.— «Other students performed tasks to play with nail polish or perfume, or to spend a few minutes “stimming,” or self-stimulating, with a bucket of colored buttons.» —“From Closet To Classroom: Schools And The Disabled Part Iii: Severely Handicapped—The Biggest Challenge” by Christopher Connell, Lee Mitgang AP Oct. 27, 1987. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Amid court-ordered busing in the 1970s, a middle-school teacher tried to distract her nervous students on the first day of class with this strange assignment: find a monarch caterpillar. The result? A memorable lesson in the miracle of metamorphosis...
There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding — and all in Latin. A new book argues that this rigorous curriculum actually nurtured the creativity that later flourished...