What is "stereotypy"

Stereotypy \Ste"re*o*ty`py\, n. [Cf. F. st['e]r['e]otypie.] The art or process of making stereotype plates.

n. 1 (context countable medicine English) excessive repetition, especially of meaningless gestures. 2 (context uncountable English) The process of making stereotype plates and printing from them.

A stereotypy (, or ) is a repetitive or ritualistic movement, posture, or utterance. Stereotypies may be simple movements such as body rocking, or complex, such as self-caressing, crossing and uncrossing of legs, and marching in place. They are found in people with intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, tardive dyskinesia and stereotypic movement disorder; studies have shown stereotypies associated with some types of schizophrenia. Frontotemporal dementia is also a common neurological cause of repetitive behaviors and stereotypies. Several causes have been hypothesized for stereotypy, and several treatment options are available.

Stereotypy is sometimes called stimming in autism, under the hypothesis that it self-stimulates one or more senses. Related terms include punding and tweaking to describe repetitive behavior that is a side effect of some drugs.

Among people with frontotemporal lobar degeneration, more than half (60%) had stereotypies. The time to onset of stereotypies in people with frontotemporal lobar degeneration may be years (average 2.1 years).

A stereotypy is a repetitive behavior related to mental impairment.

Stereotypy may also refer to:

• Stereotypical animal behavior, highly repeated non-functional behaviors which show very low variability
• Stereotypy (printing), the making of duplicate typographical elements

In animal behavior, stereotypy, stereotypical or stereotyped behavior has several meanings, leading to ambiguity in the scientific literature. The terms usually refer to stereotypy, repetitive behaviors in captive animals, particularly those given inadequate mental stimulation. These behaviors may be maladaptive, involving self-injury or reduced reproductive success, and in laboratory animals can confound behavioral research. References to stereotyped behavior can also refer to natural behaviors that show low variation, such as mammalian chewing cycles or fish prey-capture via suction feeding. Highly stereotyped movements may be due to mechanical constraint (such as the skull of a viper or fish, in which bones are mechanically linked), tight neural control (as in mammalian chewing), or both. The degree of stereotyping may vary between closely related species engaging in the same behavior.