Autism Steam Roller

About

The Autism Steam Roller or Autism Steamroller is a product designed to provide "heavy work" to kids on the autism spectrum consisting of several padded rollers attached to a frame, allowing kids to pull or push their bodies through the rollers. The product first became the subject of memes as early as 2017, becoming an increasingly prominent subject of memes in the 2020s, inspiring numerous viral posts, including image macros and redraws depicting characters using the autism steam roller.

History

It is unclear who invented the first autism steam roller. The autism steam roller is considered a type of "hug machine" or "squeeze machine," invented by Temple Grandin, a therapeutic device built to calm and give stimulation to people on the autism spectrum that essentially consists of a box with tight padding on the sides that "hug" a person who enters it.^[1]

The specific "autism steam roller" device has been discussed online since as early as July 1st, 2011, when the University of Tennessee Chattanooga^[2] website published an article about engineering students designing an affordable autism steam roller (images of the student-made device shown below).

Online Presence

Autism steam rollers are sold on a number of autism product websites, typically for around $600 USD each, including autism-products.com,^[3] got-specialkids.com^[4] and southpaw.com.^[5]

Memes

Autism steam rollers have been the subject of memes since as early as May 19th, 2017, when YouTuber^[6] Wahmaster27 uploaded a video titled "Autism steamroller compilation" that slides through several images of autism steam rollers to music, garnering over 4,700 views in seven years (shown below). On September 11th, a 9GAG^[7] user posted an image of a child using the product, often used to advertise the product, that gained over 170 upvotes in the same span of time.

On November 16th, 2021, X^[8] user and content creator Keffals posted an image of the product, writing, "need a girl that will let me put her in the autism steam roller," garnering over 1,500 likes in three years (shown below, left).

On May 17th, 2023, a now-deleted Redditor posted an image of the product to /r/autism,^[9] writing, "A NT (neurotypical) saw this and couldn't stop laughing at the name. What do you guys think is she an ablest or is it funny and I don't get it," garnering over 3,000 upvotes in 10 months. On September 27th, Tumblr^[10] user phantasmalva posted a drawing of Sunny from Omori using the steam roller, garnering over 130 notes in six months (shown below, right).

On September 27th, u/Gem_Snack posted two memes about the autism steam roller to /r/evilautism,^[11] garnering over 2,000 upvotes in six months.

On January 30th, 2024, Tumblr^[12] user kushblazer666 posted the autism steam roller screenshot, writing, "sorry your kid wouldnt stop naming pokemon in order so we had to flatten em into a sheet of lasagna," garnering over 50,000 notes in two months (shown below). On February 2nd, the post was reposted to /r/CuratedTumblr,^[13] garnering over 3,300 upvotes in a month.

On March 19th, X^[14] user @aevris_ posted the screenshot, writing, "the weighted blanket isn’t enough I need to be put in a contraption," garnering over 33,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References